COIMBATORE: The city crime branch-II arrested two people for cheating one of the trustees of PSG Group of Institutions of more than Rs 10 crore. Eleven more people linked to this case are yet to be arrested.
The arrested have been identified as P Siva (34) from Attur and R Vasanth (32) from Narasingapuram - both places in Salem - on Friday evening. Mastermind Aswinkumar is absconding. G C Sivaraj, son of Varadharajan of Prema Nivas, at Peelamedu, lodged a complaint with the city police commissioner V Balakrishnan in November 2023.
In the complaint, he stated that he has been running a spinning mill in the name of GGS Textiles India Pvt Ltd and GG and Company and he is also one of the trustees of the PSG Group of Institutions. In 2014, he had to face a challenging situation of handling an Income Tax department notice demanding Rs 5 crore.
The FIR stated, “TP Aswinkumar from Salem, who was handling the accounts, contacted him and assured him that he has close connections with the I-T officials and projected himself as one who liaisons with I-T department. Believing him, Sivaraj and Aswinkumar made him employ the arrested suspects Vasanth and Siva in his office to deal with the I-T department and assist him.
Aswinkumar demanded Rs 10 crore, insisting that they were required to settle the stipulated fine of Rs 5 crore along with an additional Rs 5 crore for ancillary expenses relating to IT proceedings. Sivaraj transferred Rs 10 crore to Aswinkumar’s account and in turn, he assured that all the I-T proceedings had been closed.
In 2016, when Sivaraj received another notice from the I-T department, Aswinkumar told him that the notice was issued for penal charges excluding the tax amount paid. Aswinkumar needed additional funds to be transferred to his account to conclude the proceedings and he threatened Sivaraj with immediate possible arrest by the I-T Department.”
It added, “He urged Sivaraj to transfer any of his lands to his name. He started to demand more funds needed to conclude the proceedings and transferred two more properties to his name. Later, Sivaraj came to know that no amount had been paid to the I-T department since 2014 to close the proceedings. Instead, he along with his associates cheated him of Rs 10 crore.”
Preliminary inquiry revealed that Aswinkumar was the mastermind and Vasanth and Siva helped him.