CHENNAI: Two more people have been arrested by the North Beach police in the case where Rs 11.6 lakh was allegedly swindled from the Chennai Collectorate. The money was meant to be distributed to kin of Tamil Nadu natives who have died abroad. Three people, including two staffers at the collector’s office, were arrested previously.
According to the police, the arrested men are R Ragupathi (30) and T Karthick Kumar (31). The police recovered their bank passbooks and cheque books. Two collector’s office staff S Pramod (31) and A Subramani (31) along with another man M Dinesh (30) were arrested on Friday. The police recovered Rs 1.15 lakh in cash, a gold ring, a two-wheeler worth Rs 3 lakh, fake government seals, and forged documents from the trio.
The police registered a case and started an inquiry after an officer from the Chennai District Collector’s Office filed a complaint.
The complainant said that some of the staff at the collector’s office had stolen four cheques from the office and swindled Rs 11.63 lakh by forging the collector’s signature and using fake government seals and documents. The funds are from the scheme that provides financial aid to families of Tamil natives who died abroad.
All the five have been sent to judicial remand.