The Kadavanthra police on Saturday arrested two persons on the charge of cheating people by masquerading as members of the Pandalam royal family.
The arrested are Santhosh Karunakaran and Gopalan. They allegedly claimed to be suppliers of equipment to the US Army in Kuwait and owned hotels in Coimbatore and Kanyakumari, besides a farm spread over 2,600 acres at Nilgiri.
They allegedly cheated a businessman running a company on Karshaka Road here by usurping a premium software worth ₹26 crore against an advance of a mere ₹15,000. They also allegedly recruited 20-odd workers of the company to their firm in Coimbatore and made them work without pay for months.
They were arrested while they were reportedly on their way to surrender before the Infopark police on the High Court’s direction in another case. They had allegedly cheated a Kuwait-based industrialist from Odisha of ₹6 crore by convincing him to undertake farming on 2,600 acres owned by the Pandalam royal family at Nilgiri.
A team led by Infopark Inspector Cletus, Kadavanthra Inspector Prajeesh, and Sub Inspectors with C-Branch Sathyajith and Augustin made the arrest.
