SALEM: The Salem city police on Sunday arrested two persons in connection with a Rs 3,500 crore cheating case. Sources said that the man arrested is the prime suspect and runs three finance companies in Kerala and Tamil Nadu along with his ten friends.
The Central Crime Branch said that the suspect was identified as G Gowtham Ramesh (40). He and his friends run finance companies in Kerala and Tamil Nadu and have allegedly cheated more than 18,000 people.
Explaining their modus operandi, the crime branch officials said that they ask people to deposit Rs1 lakh and offer to give them an interest of Rs 20,000 every month for the next ten months. The suspect opened a branch of his firm in Salem and asked people to deposit money.
However, after hundreds of people deposited the money, Gowtham did not give them their promised amount and shut down the branch recently. The incident came to light when over 70 people filed complaints with Salem city police.
The officials who traced Gowtham’s phone number found him to be at Yercaurd and arrested him along with his accomplice -- Praveen Kumar (26) -- a resident of Ediyanpalayam in Coimbatore. During the preliminary investigation, it was found that the suspect -- Gowatham -- was already a suspect in Coimbatore for cheating more than 18,000 people. The Kerala police came to Salem to inquire the suspects on Sunday.