A special court in Coimbatore on Tuesday sentenced a 35-year-old man to undergo 10 years of rigorous imprisonment for cheating 13 depositors of ₹ 1.80 crore.
Judge A.S. Ravi, Special Court for the trial of cases registered under the Tamil Nadu Protection of Interests of Depositors (TNPID) Act in Coimbatore, awarded the punishment to Vinoth Chellasamy, a resident of Ganapathy Maa Nagar, and slapped a fine of ₹ 1.85 crore on him.
According to the Economic Offences Wing (EOW), W. Christopher (53) of Subramaniam Nagar, Ganapathy, used to purchase medicines for about ₹10,000 every month for his elderly parents and sister from Medcure Pharmacy run by Chellasamy at Ganapathy Maa Nagar.
Chellasamy, his father A. Annadurai, wife Devipriya and sister A. Saranya approached Christopher and convinced him over a period that the former owned three more pharmacies in Coimbatore city. Chellasamy told Mr. Christopher that he had received orders to supply medicines to Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited, Tiruchi; Ordnance Factory, Tiruchi; and a cement factory in Tiruchi. Mr. Christopher complained to the EOW that Chellasamy assured him an incentive of ₹ 10,000 for 11 months if he invested ₹ 1 lakh in Medcure Pharmacy. He was told that ₹ 1 lakh will also be returned after 11 months.
Believing Chellasamy, the complainant invested ₹ 50,55,057 in Medcure Pharmacy and received ₹ 5.20 lakh as incentive in 13 instalments.
Mr. Christopher approached Chellasamy for receipts and other documents of his investment in July 2016 and the latter gave him a private bank’s cheque leaves. He complained to the EOW that Chellasamy went missing thereafter.
The EOW registered a case against the four accused in September 2016 and arrested Chellasamy and his father Annadurai. They were granted bail a year later. The EOW filed a chargesheet against the four accused after its investigation. Annadurai, however, died during the trial. The court acquitted Devipriya and Saranya.
