Construction fraud: Chennai couple held in Andamans after 6 months

The accused have been identified as Shajahan and his wife Najeema Bhanu, who cheated the victim, Santhanakrishnan (63), of Rs 6 crore on the pretext of constructing apartments in his name. It all began in 2015, when Chennai-based Santhanakrishnan, an ex-serviceman working in Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC), met electrician Shajahan in Neyveli. When Santhanakrishnan expressed desire to invest in real estate, Shajahan told him that his sister, Shakeela and her husband Kaleel were involved in big construction projects and introduced him to them. They told Santhanakrishan that they owned Five Ventures, a construction company based in Chennai, and that Shajahan’s wife Najeema Bhanu and Shakeela were the directors of the firm. All four of them convinced Santhanam into depositing Rs 6 crore for construction of few apartments in Rajakilpakkam near Tamabaram. However, as the project never took off, Santhanakrishnan lodged a complaint with the Entrusted Document Fraud (EDF) wing of the Central Crime Branch (CCB). On conducting inquiries, the police arrested Kaleel and Shakeela from their office in Rajakilpakkam on April 28 on cheating charges. It was also found out that they were running their firm from their home. When Shajahan and Najeema Bhanu learnt about the arrest of their partners, they went into hiding. The duo remained untraceable until an employee of NLC spotted Shajahan in Andaman recently. When he checked with his other colleagues, he found that Shajahan was absconding following the police complaint. The information was relayed to Santhanakrishan who informed the police. A police team went to Andaman and arrested Shajahan and his wife on November 19.

Seeking a proper probe into death of his 24-year-old son Karthik Raja on November 17, D. Shanmugavel of Rathinapuri in Coimbatore made a representation to the city police.

Police claimed that Karthik Raja was killed in a road accident. But Shanmugavel believes that his son was murdered as pillion rider Shanthi escaped unhurt in the accident. “Around 8 15 pm on November 17, I received a call from my son’s friend Sivaguru that Karthik Raja died because he was hit on the head with a stone,” Shanmugavel told reporters. “I thought some mad man could have attacked him and signed the papers given to me by the police. But the next day I was shocked to see that the case had been registered as death in road accident. But the pillion rider (Shanthi) had informed my son’s friend that someone had hit him on his head with a stone,” he said. Arguing that his son’s death was not an accident, Shanmugavel wanted the police to exhume the body and conduct a post-mortem. He wanted the case to be registered as murder and arrest the culprits behind the killing.