Ex-MLA’s son-in-law jailed in cheating case

Coimbatore: The city crime branch police arrested former MLA Kovai Thangam’s son-in-law B Arun Prakash, 41, of Ganapathy Layout at Saibaba Colony, here on Tuesday for cheating a man of Rs 1.5 crore. He was lodged in Avinashi sub-jail under judicial custody.
An investigation officer said Arun was engaged in real estate, hotel and other businesses. “We arrested him based on a complaint lodged by Senguttuvan, a resident of Sasi Avenue at SITRA, stating that Arun had taken Rs 1.5 crore from him to buy a tea estate in Valparai by promising him crores of profit after selling the property.”
When Senguttuvan learned that Arun hadn’t used the money to buy the tea estate, the officer said, he asked Kovai Thangam’s son-in-law to return the amount. “While Arun had issued him cheques for the amount, they were returned, as there was not enough cash in the bank account.”
Based on Senguttuvan’s complaint, the city crime branch police registered a case against Arun under Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and a team led by assistant commissioner of police T Partheepan arrested him on Tuesday morning. Arun was produced before a judicial magistrate, who remanded him in judicial custody.
The officer said Senguttuvan’s daughter 33-year-old Sindhuja had earlier lodged a complaint with the all-woman police (east) against Arun and two of his accomplices for cheating her of Rs 7 crore and threatening her with dire consequences. “She was a friend of Arun. In that case, police had booked the trio under sections 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 417 (punishment for cheating) and 506(ii) (criminal intimidation) of the IPC and arrested them. However, Arun came out on conditional bail later.”