CHENNAI: A special team has been formed to investigate a policewoman and two others booked for extorting a businessman by threatening to file a false case against him. Gnanaselvam is an inspector attached with the Thousand Lights All-Women Police Station. She, along with Umarani and KM Vishnupriya, have been booked for theft, extortion, cheating, and criminal intimidation.
The cases were booked against the trio following a court direction in a case filed by the businessman, TVS Raja Simman Naidu of Tirupur. According to the police, Raja Simman had registered with a matrimonial site in 2018, expressing interest in marrying a divorcee. Here, he met Vishnupriya of Hyderabad. The duo were talking to each other for a while, until Raja Simman discovered that she was still married, and was living with her husband and two children. Immediately, he claims to have stopped contacting Vishnupriya.
“Later in 2019, Raja met Umarani, who runs a spa in Chennai, for a business deal,” an officer said. “Umarani was planning to start a travel agency, and Raja had invested by purchasing two cars for the agency. As Umarani did not share her profits with Raja, he broke off his contact with her.” Further, the complainant alleged that Umarani was upset that he did not invest further money in her business and as an act of revenge, stole his mobile phone.
At that point, Raja told the court, Vishnupriya called Raja and Umarani attended the phone call. “Raja claims the duo hatched a plan to extort money from him, and lodged a false complaint with the Thousand Lights station. They alleged that Raja had misused them for money. Inspector Gnanaselvam and her team arrested Raja from Srirangam in 2020,” the officer added. Raja then claimed that the inspector took `5 lakh bribe from him to close the case though she did not close it.
When Raja came out on bail, months later, he did not receive the `8 lakh worth jewels that he claims were seized. Now, his allegation is that the two women and the inspector shared the valuables. When questioned about the jewels, he was asked to book flight tickets to Thiruvananthapuram for the inspector’s family, alleged the complainant. Since the city police did not take any action on his complaint against the inspector, he moved the court and received direction to register a case.
When contacted, a senior police official said that the investigation is on to ascertain the merit of allegations by the complainant. A special team under an Assistant Commissioner of Police has been formed to enquire about the veracity of the complaint.