KOCHI: Malayalam film producer Johny Thomas known as Johny Sagariga was arrested by police from Coimbatore on Wednesday in connection with a cheating case. He was arrested by the City Crime Branch (CCB) of the Coimbatore City Police following a complaint by a native of Vadavalli in Coimbatore, Dwaraka Uthayashankar, who resides in Canada now.
Johny was first detained by Bureau of Immigration (BoI) when he arrived at Nedumbassery airport to board a flight to Dubai on Tuesday night. He was detained by the BoI following a look-out notice issued by the Coimbatore Police in the cheating case.
Johny was later handed over to the police team from Coimbatore who reached the airport by Wednesday morning.
He was later shifted to Coimbatore, where the arrest was recorded. Coimbatore police had registered a case against Johny and his son Ron Thomas in March following a complaint that they took Rs 2.75 crores from Uthayashankar as an investment to produce the movie Nonsense in 2018. The transactions took place between 2016 and 2017. However, when the complainant asked Johny and his son to return the amount, only a part of it was returned.
Johny Sagariga production house has produced numerous blockbuster movies. Earlier, it has also brought out audio cassettes and CDs of Malayalam film songs.