Three arrested in Chennai for cheating company of ₹3.20 crore, in face mask scam

A fertiliser company in Chennai was duped into investing crores for face masks and gloves, police said

January 29, 2022 03:10 pm | Updated 11:14 pm IST - CHENNAI

The Central Crime Branch (CCB) of the Chennai City Police has arrested three persons who allegedly colludedwith a former Deputy General Manager of the Indian Telephone Industries (ITI) Ltd., a public sector company of the Union government, for cheating a city-based fertiliser company to the tune of ₹3.20 crore.

In connection with the fraud, the city police, in August last year, arrested K. V. N. Rajan of Ambattur, DGM of ITI Ltd (Tamil Nadu and Puducherry), who allegedly approached ICMC Pvt. Ltd., a fertiliser company in the Ambattur Industrial Estate, claiming that they had bagged the order to procure face masks and Nitrile gloves to meet the demand at government hospitals to fight COVID-19.

Rajan reportedly told the proprietor of ICMC, Kannan, that ITI Ltd. as a government entity did not have the provision to invest money in advance. He requested Kannan to make the investment required and promised that it would yield huge profits. Trusting him, the company sent ₹3.20 crore to three different companies, but did not get the masks or gloves as promised.

Police arrested B. Gnanaprakasam, 52 of Alandur and M. Sivakumar, 56 of Anna Nagar West, who have been running private firms. They were hand-in-glove with the former DGM, said the police.

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