COIMBATORE: A 54-year-old man, director of a leading sweet manufacturing company in Coimbatore, was arrested by the City Crime Branch (CCB) police on Thursday, for allegedly cheating 160 elderly people, on the pretext of providing them jobs in his company. The police also seized a few bill books and documents from the suspect’s office.
According to the police, as many as 24 victims had lodged complaints against the suspect, a resident of Ganapathy, in April 2019. All of them claimed to have paid `30,000 each for getting jobs at the company.
“Besides, 60 complaints were lodged at various police stations in the city limit, of them 34 were lodged at the City Crime branch. The person robbed RS 35 lakh from 160 people by assuring them jobs.
He assured to return the refund amount with 24 per cent interest, in case the applicant did not get the job. Later, when he denied repaying the money, they lodged complaints,” said J Nagarajan, inspector of the City Crime Branch.
A retired bank employee, V Srinivasan (67), said that most of the victims were elderly people and had invested the amount considering the company’s goodwill. “Later we came to know that the cheque and the agreement letter for the deposit were forged,” he added.
Based on a complaint received from a victim, named Govindaraj, a case was registered against the 54-year-old man, who was sent to Coimbatore Central Prison for 15 days remand, the official added.