Central Crime Branch (CCB) of the city police on Wednesday arrested a Tamil film director-producer on charges of cheating a financier of around Rs. 1.20 crore.
CCB sources said the suspect Chithiraichelvan (52), a resident of R.A. Puram, had approached financier Prakash of T. Nagar in 2008 to finance the expenses of shooting a movie in South Korea. After he was promised that the money would be refunded once the film was released, Prakash invested Rs. 70 lakh.
Last year, Chithiraichelvan and Sasikala’s nephew Bhaskaran (47), who is in prison on charges of cheating, persuaded Prakash to invest an additional Rs. 50 lakh for the making of a film in which Bhaskaran played the lead.
Recently, Prakash approached Chithiraichelvan and asked him to pay back Rs. 1.20 crore. However, he was threatened with dire consequences. Prakash then lodged a compliant with the office of the Commissioner of Police.
A CCB team probed the matter and arrested Chithriraichelvan on Tuesday night. He was remanded to custody and sent to Puzhal prison. Bhaskaran has been booked as the secondary suspect, sources said.