ALAPPUZHA: Filmmaker Shrikumar Menon was arrested for fraud following a case filed by the owners of Sree Valsam Group of Companies. The Alappuzha south police arrested Shrikumar from his house in Palakkad late on Thursday evening.After the arrest was recorded, the accused and the complainant settled the case in court. The police said the owners of the Ambalappuzha-based company had complained that Shrikumar collected around `7 crore from the company to produce a film in 2016, but failed to repay the amount.
Later, the filmmaker evaded assurances on various dates to return the money, said Circle Inspector S Sanal.“The company invested money to produce a film on Shrikumar’s assurance that the money will be returned in two years. He also pledged documents for the money but could not keep his word as his debut film ‘Odiyan’ failed to generate the expected revenue,” the CI said.
Shrikumar had earned fame as an ad-filmmaker and turned feature director with ‘Odiyan’, with Mohanlal and Manju Warrier in the lead. After the release of the film, Manju had petitioned the State Police Chief stating that Shrikumar tried to defame her through social media. She had also alleged that the letter pad of ‘Manju Warrier Foundation’ and blank cheques she had signed were misused by the director.