P. Thangappan. File
| Photo Credit: M. Karunakaran
The Entrustment Document Fraud (EDF) Wing of the Central Crime Branch in Chennai has arrested P. Thangappan, secretary-general of Indo-Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industries, for his alleged involvement with a group of nine persons in cheating two businessmen to the tune ₹11.81 crore under the pretext of getting them an investment opportunity of up to ₹2,000 crore from the Russian government.
Goushik, a businessman who has an office in T. Nagar, lodged a complaint in this regard with the City Police Commissioner last year. He alleged that Arunraj, who ran a company named Indo-Russian Business Associates in Alwarpet, claimed he was a delegate of the Indo-Russian Chambers of Commerce and Industries Limited.
Arunraj claimed that Russia was ready to invest in schemes in India and told Goushik he could get him an investment of up to ₹2,000 crore for a project in Tiruchi, for which he was looking for investors. Convinced by the claims, the businessman transferred ₹7.32 crore to the accused’s accounts between March and October, 2024, towards commission or facilitation charges. He later realised he was duped.
The police, while investigating the case, found that the prime accused Arunraj had links with Thangappan. Thangappan had appointed Arunraj as the deputy chairman of his association using fake documents, and exploiting this title, Arunraj and his associates contacted the complainant, the police said.
The police said that without the knowledge of officials from the Russian consulate and the Russian cultural centre, Thangappan and his associates — Arunraj, Rupa, and others — entered into an agreement to run three fictitious firms at the cultural centre and rent out a portion of the premises. Fixing the monthly rent at ₹1.58 lakh, Thangappan received ₹1.58 crore through bank transactions and an additional ₹4 crore from Arunraj and others, thereby engaging in fraud, according to the police. The accused used fake Russian government insignia, flags, and a fabricated website to deceive the victims.
Last November, the police arrested nine persons, including prime accused Arunraj, Rupa, M. Kumaran, 43, S. Nagendran, 39, Madhankumar, retired VAO Dharman, Ziaudeen, Vignesh Kumar, tahsildar (Tasmac) Viswanathan, and Sasikumar. The police also recovered 476 sovereigns of gold, 400 kg of silver, a sum of ₹14.5 lakh, and 11 luxury cars.
The police claimed a prima facie case was made out against Thangappan through documentary evidence. On further investigation, he was arrested on Wednesday and remanded in judicial custody.
Meanwhile, the EDF arrested Arun and his associate in yet another case registered based on a complaint given by Chinnasamy, a Tirupur-based businessman who allegedly lost ₹4.4 crore to the accused.
Published – March 14, 2025 05:07 pm IST