Pastor cheated them of Rs 68 lakh under pretext of constructing orphanage, allege couple
THOOTHUKUDI: A couple from Ottapidaram lodged a complaint with the Superintendent of Police on Monday, alleging that a pastor cheated them of `68 lakh, under the pretext of constructing an orphanage and old age home, and urged the officials to register an FIR against him. However, the pastor termed the allegations as false and denied the charges.
According to the complainants, K Arumugakrishnan and his wife Vasantha of Kakarampatti village, they had given a total of `68 lakh, including `16 lakh in cash, to Newton David, a pastor (Assemblies of God) of Ottapidaram after the latter allegedly sought money claiming to renovate a church, and construct an orphanage and old age home.
Upon realising the fraud, the couple demanded the money back. However, the pastor allegedly promised to return the money after receiving funds from foreign countries, sources said.
The couple further said that the pastor showed forged Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) approved bonds worth several crores provided by RBI, and a cheque valued `30 crore to make them trust him. Newton gave two such bonds valued `5 crore and `10 crore (to Arumugakrishnan and Vasantha, respectively) which were later found to be fake, they said.
Further, Arumugakrishnan accused Newton of extracting iridium from temple kalasams, and urged the police to register an FIR against the pastor and his cahoots.
Meanwhile, when contacted, Newton, who has been suspended from the denomination, denied the allegations raised by the couple and said the money dispute had been settled by the district crime branch police. He accused Arumugakrishnan of morphing his pictures to level the iridium theft allegation, and denied issuing fake RBI bonds and cheques.