Kariya’ Sukash re-surfaced in Chennai in 2010 having assumed a different persona after an image makeover. He walked into a salon and spa run by one Kannan at Chetpet in Chennai.
The salon had photographs of Kannan giving a makeover to Superstar Rajinikanth. Arriving in a red beacon car with bodyguards, Sukash introduced himself as the grandson of then chief minister M Karunanidhi and the soon to be son-in-law of then Union Minister M K Alagiri. He was posing as the son of Selvi, the elder daughter of the DMK patriarch.
He persuaded Kannan to give him a makeover that changed his brown skin to a much fairer tone. Kannan was hesitant at first and asked him to approach a much bigger and popular saloon. Not wanting to upset a member of DMK’s first family, he finally yielded.
Sukash then started frequenting the salon with his paraphernalia and bonded well with Kannan.
To enforce the impression of being connected to the family, Sukash even lied about the handicap in his left hand. Sukash lost four fingers on his left hand as a child while playing in the rubber factory where his parents worked.
All five fingers on his left hand got crushed except for the thumb, which was stitched back.
Due to the deformity, Sukash always tucked his left hand in his trouser pocket. But, when Kannan asked about the missing fingers, Sukash cooked up a story about how he lost them while saving his maternal uncle Alagiri from being attacked by a gang of goons.
He also became friends with actor Mahendran, son of yesteryear veteran actor Vijayakumar, who too was a regular there. He slowly drove a wedge between Mahendran and Kannan and made sure that the two did not get along.
Sukash then offered to get Kannan Rs 6 lakh-worth of government cars at `2 lakh ahead of the State Assembly elections saying the government would dispose them of anyway.
When Kannan requested Sukash to pay the money and collect it from him later, he said he was left with nothing after buying a diamond ring worth Rs 40 lakh for his “fiancee” and Alagiri’s daughter, Kayalvizhi.
Believing the story, Kannan gave Rs 3.5 lakh to Sukash, but the car never came.
Sukash also did not pay Rs 5,000 he owed Kannan for his beauty treatment at latter’s salon and spa.
Kannan and Mahendran, who had also been promised a car in exchange of Rs 2 lakh, reconnected after neither was able to reach Sukash on his mobile.
Mahendran contacted Sukash’s mother who returned the money on the condition that no police complaint be lodged. But, Kannan lodged a complaint and got Sukash arrested in 2010.