Con man detained under Goondas Act

Tirupur: A 40-year-old man, lodged at the Coimbatore central prison in a cheating case, was detained under the Goondas Act on Wednesday following a recommendation from the district collector.

P Santhana Bharathi of Tirunelveli was detained under the act after the police learned that he was involved in such cases in other districts too.

According to police, on April 26, Santhana Bharathi called K Pradeep of Vadavalli in Coimbatore, who was running a knitwear unit in Tirupur, and introduced himself as an officer in the commercial tax department. He offered to reduce GST imposed on Pradeep’s business transactions, if he agreed to pay bribe.

“Pradeep paid Rs 4 lakh in two instalments through bank. But when the accused demanded another Rs 2 lakh, he grew suspicious. Subsequently, he lodged a complaint with police,” said a police officer.

The Tirupur south police registered a case and arrested Santhana Bharathi in the last week of May.

“After further investigations, we found that the accused was involved in many such cheating cases and in robbery cases. He had posed as a tax officer, tahsildar and district collector and cheated people in different districts including Erode, the Nilgiris, Salem and Trichy,” said the officer.

“He used to call his victims in phone and avoided meeting them. Then he would book a taxi and get the help of the driver to receive money from victims. His victims were businessmen chosen through online promotion portals,” said the officer.

Police recovered two mobile phones and many sim cards from the accused. They also recovered Rs 1.3 lakh of Rs 4 lakh lost by Pradeep.