Another accused held in land grab tied to MK's kin

The city police have arrested one more director of Orchid Foundation Private Limited on charges of grabbing Rs 155 crore worth prime property at Nungambakkam.

K Soundarapandian (63) was arrested by the Central Crime Branch on Sunday as the police found that he was instrumental in aiding the prime accused, Uma Maheswari, a relative of former DMK leader M Karunanidhi, in grabbing the land from Ethis Gupta, treasurer of a private trust that originally owned the land.

A retired teacher and one of the directors of the company, police said Soundarapandian was the one who introduced Ethis Gupta to Uma Maheswari. Uma Maheswari was arrested on Friday on the basis of a complaint lodged by Ethis Gupta.

According to the police, Swaroop Reddy, director of Sathyam Cinemas, was also an accused in the case as he was the ultimate beneficiary in the land grab and one of his relatives, Sujay Anand Reddy, was arrested on Saturday.

“In 2006, Uma along with her accomplices threatened Ethis Gupta, treasurer of the trust, and forced him to sell the property located at Kumarappa Street, Kasi Garden in Nungambakkam for a very low price of Rs 2.1 crore. At the time of land registration the following year, the accused registered 16 grounds in their name and gave the trustees only Rs 1.70 crore of which they took back Rs 1.50 crore,” a statement from the police said.

After grabbing the property, Sujay Anand Reddy was given power of attorney for the usurped property and he sold 2.5 grounds of land to Sathyam Cinemas director Swaroop Reddy in 2012.

After the sale, Gupta and other trustees were chased away from the property by henchmen engaged by the accused, the police said. Following Gupta’s complaint last week, the Central Crime Branch registered the case and began investigations.