CHENNAI: Two men were arrested by the Villivakkam police on Tuesday on charges of trying to extort Rs 8 crore by impersonating minister Aadhav Arjuna and using a fake email ID to convince Vellore MLA MM Vinoth Kannan that they could secure him a ministerial post.
The police arrested M Ruben Raj (27) of Virupatchipuram in Vellore and K Sakthi Arjun (21) of Tiruvottiyur in Chennai. The police seized two mobile phones and a CPU from them. The two were produced before a city court in Chennai on Tuesday and remanded in judicial custody.
The police said that the incident came to light after a complaint was lodged by Niswak, Aadhav’s legal representative, following which a case under relevant sections of BNS and the IT Act was registered at Villivakkam police station.
During investigation, the police found that in the last week of July, Ruben and Sakthi had allegedly told Dayalan, who runs a catering business in Vellore that they knew Aadhav Arjuna and could get MLA Vinoth Kannan appointed as a minister for `8 crore. Believing them, Dayalan conveyed the proposal to the MLA’s office through Venkatesh, also from Vellore.
The police said Ruben allegedly used his laptop to create a fake email ID in the name of the minister and sent a screenshot of a purported confirmation message through Venkatesh on WhatsApp along with an email to make the claim appear genuine.
The MLA became suspicious in the way the message and the mail was written and asked to speak to the minister directly through a video call. During the call, the impersonation and the alleged attempt to cheat him using the fake email came to light, the police said.
Further investigation is under way.
