For some, suggestion of godmen helps. But this one of writing a fake threat letter to implicate opponent in a false case landed a businessman, belonging to a noted chain of cloth-stores, behind the bars here on Wednesday.
S.R. Nagar police arrested Jana Rama Rao while godman Vemuri Shankaranad accused of giving that idea to him is absconding. Rao had a dispute with K. Phanindra, son of former Minister Kanna Laxminarayana from Guntur of Andhra Pradesh. He contends that Phanindra failed to supply some colour printer machines as per a business deal between two of them and thus owed him some money.
“Phanindra refutes the claim and maintains that it was actually Rao who owned him money which he had taken for some investment,” S.R. Nagar Inspector Mohd. Waheeduddin said. From personal arguments, the matter reached a stage of both sending legal notices to one another.
The legal tangle continued but no solution was found. Meanwhile, the businessman approached godman Shankaranand alias Baba. “Investigation revealed that Baba had suggested to him to prepare a letter in the name of Phanindra intimidating Rao if the matter was not settled in his favour,” the Inspector explained.
A few days ago, the businessman approached police stating that he received ‘threat letter from Phanindra’ following the monetary dispute. A criminal case was registered against the former Minister’s son.
“Naturally Phanindra said he was innocent. Suspicions arose about the genuineness of the letter as it was in printed format,” investigators said. Interestingly, the signature was almost same as that found in legal notices sent by Phanindra.
Rao’s trick fell flat when investigators found that signature was cut from the legal notice sent by Phanindra and pasted on the letter. Still, he stuck to his guns stating that the threat letter posted from Guntur was real.
When investigators asked if he ever went to Guntur recently, Rao said he never went there but visited Vijayawada for Krishna Pushkaralu. Police rang up Rao’s car driver who repeated the same.
“But from Vijayawada, we also drove to Guntur just to drop a letter. I didn’t know why my master asked me to drive up to Guntur only to post a letter,” the unsuspecting driver told his interrogators. The businessman’s mobile phone Call Data Record (CDR) also confirmed that he moved in Guntur during that time.
