CHENNAI: Four men, including a former vice-president of Samsung India, were convicted for cheating a Tirupathi-based businessman of Rs 2.6 crore. They were sentenced to three years of imprisonment and a fine of Rs 4,000 on each of them.
The Special Court for CCB & CB-CID cases in Egmore awarded the sentence on V L Narayan, ex-VP at Samsung India, his wife Jyothi Narayanan, Caroline Eucharista and her husband Soundarajan alias V Franco Soundarajaran.
According to the police, complainant Hemanth Kumar of Mylapore ran an electronic goods dealership in Tirupathi. In 2016, Hemanth got acquainted with Narayan as part of business dealings.
Hemanth, who had been looking to shift his business to Chennai, was persuaded by Narayan to invest in a firm called i2 Distribution in Thiruvanmiyur to help meet his business goals.
The firm was represented by Illankumaran, Jyothi Narayan and Caroline Eucharista. Hemanth said in his complaint that a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was entered between them according to which Hemanth would invest Rs 2.6 crores for an interest of 2% per month.
Hemanth paid the amount to the firm in several transactions. A few months later, the accused paid him Rs 68 lakh in cash in the form of profit and some post dated cheques which were dishonoured owing to insufficient funds.
When he did not receive any more payments, Hemanth lodged a police complaint in 2021 and a case was registered. The case against Illankumaran was quashed by the Madras High Court a while back.