CHENNAI: Actor Vishnu Vishal’s father and former Director General of Police (DGP), Ramesh Kudawla, and film producer Anbuvel Rajan were booked by the police for allegedly cheating actor Soori of Rs 2 crore in a land deal.
Following a direction from the metropolitan magistrate court in Saidapet, the Adyar Police registered a case under IPC sections 406 (Criminal breach of trust), 420 (Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 465 (forgery), 468 (Forgery for purpose of cheating) and 471 (Using as genuine a forged).
Ramesh Kudawla worked as the DGP of Tamil Nadu Fire and Rescue Services and retired from service in June last year. Since Soori and Vishnu Vishal have been friends for a long time, Kudawla was also well acquainted with Soori.
According to a petition filed by E Vigneshwaran, personal manager of Soori, in 2015, one Ramesh approached Soori to act in a movie. He was informed that it would be produced by AVR productions, owned by Anbuvel Rajan.
Soori agreed for shooting at a remuneration of `40 lakh. Later, the production house and title of the movie were renamed as Vishnu Vishal Movies and “Kadha Nayagan” respectively. Though the shoot was done for 32 days, Soori did not receive the payment.
As Soori was interested in investing in real estate, Ramesh and Anbuvel showed him properties, and one at Siruseri was finalised. Anbuvel had claimed that he was the power agent, and Ramesh paid `40 lakh as advance which was Soori’s payment for acting in the film. Soori also paid `3.15 crore altogether for the land.
Only after the property registration in 2018, Soori came to know that it was not approved as residential property. He learnt that the duo cheated him as being agreement holders and by misusing their power, they got the property registered in his name, the petitioner said.