Film financier Bothra and two sons arrested in third case

CHENNAI: Chennai central crime branch sleuths registered a third

cheating

case against

film financier

Bothra and his two sons based on the complaint of a gold commission agent from Nungambakkam on Saturday.

The complainant Ananda Nahar, 42, borrowed Rs 5 lakh from

Bothra

in 2014. Nahar claimed that he had so far paid Rs 30 lakh as interest, apart from paying 800 grams of gold to Bothra but Bothra filled in three blank cheques and promissory notes given by Nahar stating that Nahar had borrowed Rs 3 crore.

Following this, Nahar lodged a complaint to the city police and the petition was forwarded to the kanduvatti wing of the central crime branch. Police sub-inspector Magudeshwari registered a case against Bothra and his two sons, who are now in Puzhal prison, under the IPC Sections 420 (cheating), 465 (punishment for

forgery

) 467 (forgery of valuable security, will, etc) and 506 (II) (criminal intimidation).

The formal arrest in the third case will be issued to Bothra and his sons through prison officials after obtaining the arrest warrant.

Police arrested the 57-year-old film financier and his sons on Tuesday for allegedly cheating a hotel owner by lending money for usury and trying to take possession of his hotel at T Nagar.

Based on a complaint by Senthil Ganapathy, owner of PRC international hotels private Ltd at T Nagar, CCB sleuths arrested S Mukundchand Bothra, his sons Sandeep Bothra and Gagan Bothra. Police said Senthil in 2016 had approached Bothra, who runs a finance company seeking Rs 83.5 lakh as loan to renovate and upgrade his hotel at T Nagar.

For this, Senthil, was asked to transfer Rs 4 lakh to Bothra’s account as interest for the loan. Bothra’s sons had asked the hotel owner to pay 60% of interest for the loan which Senthil transferred in several instalments.

Inquiries revealed that the trio also got signatures of Senthil on blank bond papers which they later filled stating that Senthil had sold the hotel to them. They demanded Rs 4.24 crore to be paid in10 days. Inspector of police Vasanthan registered a case and arrested the trio.

Based on the complaint of a film producer J Satish Kumar, sub-inspector Meena Kumari of the CCB wing in the city police arrested Bothra in the second case slapped on him. Bothra had already been arrested by CCB on same charges of cheating a local resident in 2006.