Sivasankar appears for inquiry in Rs 23 lakh job scam case

CHENNAI: Former transport minister and DMK MLA, SS Sivasankar, on Wednesday appeared before the Greater Chennai Police (GCP) in response to the summons issued on July 1 for an enquiry in connection with a case in which a retired police official was cheated of Rs 23 lakh on the promise of a job for his family member in the transport department.

Last week, a police team arrested L Ilanchezhiyan (59) of Ariyalur based on the complaint. Ilanchezhiyan, who had claimed that he had close ties with the former transport minister, allegedly collected money for the job.

After news reports claimed that the former minister's assistant was arrested, the MLA took to social media and stated that he has no ties with the person arrested by the police and that he has no assistant in the name of Ilanchezhiyan. The police had also seized two ID cards from him, on which he falsely claimed to be a District Education Officer.

On Wednesday, after the questioning, Sivasankar addressed mediapersons and said that he reiterated to the police that he has no connection with the arrested person, Ilanchezhian.

"He (the accused) did not work as an assistant with me. He misused my name since he was from my district. Not just this, he seems to be involved in several such scams," Sivasankar said. He further denied the complainant's claim that he himself spoke to the latter over the phone. Sivasankar said that he is ready to give a voice sample too to cooperate with the investigation.

The complainant, a retired special sub-inspector (SSI), S Srinivasan (65), a resident of MGR Nagar, Chennai, alleged that Ilanchezhiyan took Rs 23 lakh in multiple installments between 2023 and 2025, assuring Srinivasan that he would secure an Assistant Engineer job in MTC for his son.

The accused neither arranged the job nor returned the money, after which the complainant approached the police.