COIMBATORE: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) police, Coimbatore arrested a 36-year-old man who was convicted of 10 years of rigorous imprisonment by the special court for TNPID act cases in January 2023 for cheating 13 depositors of Rs 1.80 crore.
The court issued a non-bailable warrant (NBW) against him after he failed to appear before the court during the pronouncement of judgment. The police executed the NBW after 13 months and arrested him on Tuesday
A Vinoth Chellasamy (36) of Thiruverumbur in Trichy was arrested on Monday night. He was produced before the special court for TNPID Act cases on Tuesday and remanded to prison. As per sources, W Christopher (53) from Subramaniam Nagar at Ganapathy complained to the EOW police on September 15, 2016, that he used to visit a pharmacy at Ganapathy Maa Nagar in the city to buy medicine. The pharmacy owner Vinoth, his father A Annadurai, his wife Devipriya and his sister A Saranya from Ganapathy Maa Nagar, approached Christopher and told him that Vinoth was running three more pharmacies and obtained orders from BHEL (Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited), Tiruchy, Ordnance Factory, Tiruchy and a cement factory in Tiruchy to supply medicines.
Christopher was told that if he invested Rs 1 lakh in their pharmacy, he would get Rs 10,000 as an incentive every month for 11 months and finally the capital amount would be returned. He invested Rs 50,55,057 in the firm and received Rs 5.20 lakh as incentive. Meanwhile, Vinoth closed his business and went missing. Based on his complaint, police booked a case against Vinoth and his family members under sections 120 B, 420, 468, 469 and 471 of IPC and section 5 of the TNPID Act in 2016. Vinoth and Annadurai were arrested and subsequently, they came out on conditional bail.
Meanwhile, the police filed a charge sheet before the court and the trial was held before the special court for TNPID Act cases. During the trial, Annadurai died and the court on January 31, 2023, sentenced 10 years imprisonment to Vinoth and imposed a fine of Rs 1.85 crore. Others were acquitted from the case.