After five months of suspense and high drama, the police arrested producer S. Madhan of Vendhar Movies on Sunday in Tirupur. With this, all the swirling rumours about his whereabouts have been put to rest.
Addressing mediapersons on Monday, Chennai Police Commissioner S. George said the police team had actually been tracking a woman suspected to be a close accomplice of Madhan.
Police surprised
On Sunday, when the police team visited her home in Tirupur to make enquiries about the missing producer’s whereabouts, they were surprised to find him hiding behind a secret door.
Initially, the police team had no clue where Madhan would be, but they were convinced that he had not committed suicide as he had threatened in a note, circulated widely on social media.
The first tip they received pointed them in the direction of Haridwar, but a police team missed him by a whisker as he had vacated the hotel room just before it got there.
Mr. George said: “Madhan, having studied at the Marathwada Institute of Technology in Aurangabad, had good knowledge of varioius places in North India and kept changing his haunts.”
Madhan was produced before a judicial magistrate and was sent to prison.
Nation-wide search ends in Tirupur
The case of the missing man has finally been solved. The arrest of S. Madhan of Vendhar Movies is a huge step forward in a probe that has seen the involvement of prominent figures in the city’s higher education landscape.
Police Commissioner S. George, who announced the news, congratulated the special team headed by Ambattur Deputy Commissioner R. Sudhakar, who was assisted by two Assistant Commissioners and nine Inspectors. He noted that the absconder was arrested after a long and nation-wide search.
Mr. George gave reporters an elaborate timeline of the case. Madhan of Vendhar Movies, the production house he started in 2011, had reportedly gone missing on May 29. He left behind a suicide note, which was circulated on social media. His wife Sindhu later gave a man missing complaint at the Virugambakkam police station on June 1. After this, quite unexpectedly, a flurry of complaints began to be registered against Madhan, accusing him of collecting money as capitation fees, assuring students of seats in SRM Medical College, and not only reneging on the promise, but also not returning the money. Nearly 120 complaints of cheating were received regarding illegally collected money and the amount involved totalled Rs. 84.59 crore.
Meanwhile, the High Court heard the habeas corpus petition filed by Madhan’s mother Thangam and asked the police to investigate the missing case, along with complaints regarding the payment of capitation fees. Subsequently, Ms. Thangam filed another petition, stating that she was afraid her son was being held by the SRM group. On instructions from the Court, T. R. Pachamuthu, owner of the SRM group, was investigated and later held, in connection with cases of cheating filed by parents and the mysterious disappearance of Madhan.
In the meantime, the police team got clue — they found out about a woman who was in touch with Madhan while he was staying in a house in Roorkee, Uttarakhand. By the time the police team identified the location where Madhan was staying, he got wind of the news and fled to Manipur, where he had even purchased a house and registered it in the name of a close associate. The special team finally identified the hiding place and stayed put in Manipur for more than a month. However, they were not able to nab him there as he had moved on. That’s when the police stumbled upon another clue that finally led to his arrest. They identified another woman in Tirupur who was in constant touch with Madan, and they made a trip to the city to investigate that link, and found Madhan hiding in her house.
Madhan was later produced before a judicial magistrate and sent to prison.
