KOCHI: A ‘local politician’ from Ponekkara has allegedly swindled Rs.5.5 lakh from a woman and her relatives assuring her a job with Milma at Pathadipalam. The Kalamassery police have registered a case against Suresh Ram, 40, on a complaint lodged by Deepthi Sooraj, 32, a native of Thrikkakara North Village.
As per the FIR, the accused demanded Rs.2.5 lakh from Deepthi assuring to arrange a job with Milma at Pathadippalam. As per the demand, Deepthi deposited Rs.75,000 in his bank account on October 28, 2021, as an advance amount. On top of this, the accused allegedly took Rs.2 lakh from Deepthi’s sister’s husband, Rs.2 lakh from another relative of the complainant and Rs.75,000 from her mother-in-law. However, even after swindling a total of Rs.5.5 lakh from the complainant’s family, he neither arranged the job nor returned the amount.
“We conducted a probe into the complaint and found that the accused has cheated more people. Though the accused claims that he is a local politician, we don’t know whether he has any influence in Milma to arrange the job,” a police officer said. Though the accused approached the Ernakulam additional sessions court seeking anticipatory bail, it was dismissed last week. Following this, the police have decided to arrest Suresh.
“We have to register more cases against him. For this, we are contacting more persons from whom the accused allegedly swindled money,” a police officer said. When the anticipatory bail plea came up for hearing, Suresh’s counsel argued that the complainant and her mother-in-law were engaged in a money lending business and he had taken a loan from them. He claimed that his bank account statement proves that he repaid some amount as instalments.
“The case diary contains the undertaking in writing signed by the accused wherein it is stated that the total amount of Rs.6 lakh which he collected from five persons offering them jobs would be repaid. There is absolutely no reason to think the complainant has come forward with false accusations. It is of no doubt that any protection of pre-arrest bail granted to the accused would adversely affect the investigation,” said additional sessions judge G Girish.