CHENNAI: The Chennai city police arrested seven persons for allegedly kidnapping a 37-year-old man, who worked for the Aarudhra, a financial services company that is accused of swindling money from several persons by floating fraudulent investment schemes.
Police said the arrested persons had lost money by investing in the firm on the word of the kidnapped man.
A Senthilkumar from Ariyalur district was working as a driver in the Aminjikarai branch of the company. As he was also acting as an agent, the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) that is investigating the financial fraud had arrested Senthilkumar, was recently released on bail.
Senthilkumar was staying with his relative in Koyambedu and was appearing in court for the trial. Around 2 pm on July 28, he was walking along the lanes of Semathamman Nagar in Koyambedu when a gang kidnapped him.
The kidnappers then contacted Senthilkumar’s family and demanded a ransom of Rs 15 lakh to release him, police said. Fearing for his safety, the man’s mother transferred Rs one lakh to the gang. After collecting the money, they dropped off Senthilkumar at Porur tollgate the next day.
Based on a complaint from the family, the Koyambedu police registered a case. After investigation, the officials arrested seven persons - V Ajithkumar (27), K Selvam (38), M Manikandan (27), S Saravanan (27), G Vignesh (25), C Siva (31), and R Balaji (27).
According to the police, of the arrested persons, Selvam, Manikandan and Vignesh had invested a total of Rs 15 lakh in Aarudhra based on Senthilkumar’s recommendation. When they found out that the whole investment scheme was a fraud played on them, they grew angry at Senthilkumar and decided to recoup their investment in the form of ransom.
The arrested persons were produced before a magistrate and remanded in judicial custody.
Probing the scam, the EOW has so far arrested 21 people, including senior executives of the firm. Apart from seizing Rs 6.35 crore cash, 22 cars, and gold and silver articles worth Rs one crore, officials have also frozen bank accounts of officials and agents of Aarudhra that contained Rs 96 crore.