Two Sri Lankan Tamils P Shanmughavel (35) and Bala settled in London, had been allegedly helping Tamil refugees acquire UK citizenship for a cut: Rs 67 lakh per candidate. In the process, they earned crores of rupees as commission. Later, they became rivals as Shanmughavel allegedly cheated Bala by holding back his share of the commission valued at over Rs 1 crore, said a senior police officer. Both have relatives in Chennai.
When Shanmughavel visited Chennai on June 22, Bala allegedly hired a gang to kidnap him after intercepting his car near Pallavakkam.
The gang then locked him in a house at Periyamedu and forced him to pay Rs 25 lakh as ransom at knifepoint. As per their direction, Shanmughavel's wife Radhika handed over Rs 17.50 lakh to Suresh, one of the gang members, near hotel Airway in Chennai. The gang members also broke a hand of Shanmugham when he was under their custody and dropped him near Anna Nagar after they received the money from his wife, the police said.
Based on a complaint from Shanmughavel, a special team searched for the gang members and caught them during a vehicle check at 200 Feet Road in Pallavaram.
During interrogation, the gang members Jana alias Janarthnan (30) of Kolathur, Srinivasan (30) and Suresh (29) of Perambur, and Baskar (31) of Periyamedu claimed that Bala had masterminded the plan. He promised to pay them Rs 1 lakh each, and gave an advance of Rs 20,000 to each of them, said V Selvaraj, Inspector, Law and Order, Pallavaram.
For his part, Shanmughavel told the police that it was Bala who had cheated him after collecting several lakhs of rupees under the pretext of producing a film. The duo had launched a production house called TV pictures and Shanmughavel claimed that he had invested over Rs 6 lakh in the business, but Bala ditched him. The police said they would get a clear picture only after arresting and questioning Bala.
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