Fresh summons to Kalanithi

CHENNAI: The police plan to issue fresh summons to Sun TV Network chairman and managing director Kalanithi Maran to appear before them for questioning in connection with cheating cases filed by film distributors T S Selvaraj and Shanmugavelu of Salem.
The police had arrested Sun Pictures chief operating officer W Hansraj Saxena on July 3 and his associate Ayyappan on July 7.Saxena, against whom five cases had been registered, is now in Puzhal prison. He had been granted bail in two cases.
On July 11, the K K Nagar police issued summons to Kalanithi Maran and asked him to appear before them on July 13, but he failed to appear. Instead, in a letter delivered to the investigating officers through counsel Batcha and Ravikumar, he said he would be outside the city and would not be able to appear before the police till July 26.
“As Kalanithi Maran is likely to appear before investigation officers on Tuesday or Wednesday, we plan to issue fresh summons to him. We have to prepare to interrogate Maran in the two cases,” a senior police officer said.
Saxena was arrested on July 3 based on a complaint from Selvaraj who said Sun Pictures had cheated him of 82.53 lakh with regard to the release of Theeratha Vilayattu Pillai. Shanmugavelu said he was allegedly threatened and forced to pay 45 lakh after he withdrew from distributing the same film.