CHENNAI: Police are hunting for a married young woman who, along with her brother and uncle, swindled over `22 lakh from a city-based trader. The two men are under arrest, and officials are investigating whether others were involved in the case.
Kaalesha, a 55-year-old resident of Panaiyur who has been into cement business for the last two decades, met Anand, a 22-year-old for a business deal.
Anand said his friend Rajendran from Erode was constructing a building near Muttukad for his company, Arun Export, and wanted to have a deal with a good cement dealer. The trader had known Anand in his younger days, so he agreed to help him.
After starting the purchase with smaller quantity, 30 bags of cement, Anand collected 600 bags on credit. But when he asked next time, again on credit, the trader refused.
Anand asked him to visit the construction site, and gave an address. When Kaalesha asked the security guard at the under-construction building, he confirmed that it was owned by Rajendran.
After gaining his trust, Anand sought `3 lakh for construction work, which he gave. Meanwhile, the trader received a call from a young woman, who identified herself as Rajendran’s daughter Aruna. She began keeping in touch with him, and during one of the calls, asked `2 lakh for an emergency.
The trader raised the money somehow and deposited in the account that she gave. The next time she called, she said she was admitted to a private hospital in Erode and sought another `2 lakh. But by then, he had grown suspicious. He called the hospital and found that no such person was admitted in the ward she mentioned, and lodged a complaint with Kanathur police last week.
Based on the complaint, police arrested Anand and Rajendran, but Aruna escaped. Later, police found that Rajendran was Anand’s uncle and the woman was his sister, Sumathi.
Police said Anand, a security guard who has studied only till Class 10, was the brain behind the fraud. His income as a guard was too low to meet the luxurious life that he wanted to enjoy, which led to the crime, police said.
He also has a girlfriend who is studying in an engineering college, on whom he has spent a lot of the money, including buying her a mobile phone worth `70,000.