Chennai: Ninety days after S. Madhan of Vendhar Movies went missing, T.R. Pachamuthu, SRM Medical College Hospital and Research Centre's chairman and managing director and founder of India Jananayaka Katchi (IJK) party, a BJP ally in the state, was arrested on Friday. He was remanded to judicial custody till Sept. 9.
His arrest came after a marathon interrogation in connection with a Rs 75 crore medical seat scam conducted by Chennai city crime branch (CCB) sleuths, which began on Thursday evening.
He has been booked under section of IPC 420 (cheating), 406 (offence of criminal misappropriation of property entrusted by someone else and 34 (act by several people of the common intention).
The case began as an offshoot of the investigation into the missing film producer and founder of Vendhar movies, S. Madhan. A Division Bench comprising Justices S.Nagamuthu and V.Bharathidasan, before whom a habeas corpus petition filed by R.S.Thangam, Madhan’s mother, had come up for hearing on August 18 when the court also wanted to know as to why the cops were hesitant to question the SRM group chairman.
Following that lead, the CCB issued summons to Pachamuthu to be present for an interrogation on Thursday. The SRM founder arrived at 5.40 pm for interrogation which began at 7 pm on Thursday and it went on until 11 pm. After dinner, Pachamuthu was allowed to take rest. He was given newspapers to read and provided breakfast on Friday morning and the questioning began again as early as 7 am.
At around 11 am, the cops told him that he was being arrested. He was then brought to the Old Commissioner Office campus in Egmore where he was questioned after which he was taken to the Government Royapettah Hospital for medical examination at around 1 pm and provided lunch there.
After the medical examination, Pachamuthu said he was under medication and he was taken to Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital for further medical tests. Necessary scans were recommended, and were taken before he was taken to the Saidapet Metropolitan Court Complex later in the night for remand.
On May 28, Madhan ‘went missing’, and a letter purportedly written by him was circulated on WhatsApp. The letter claimed that he was going to Varanasi to attain ‘jala samadhi’.
While Madhan’s wife Sumalatha and other family members expressed before the media their fears that the SRM group was behind Madhan’s disappearance, complaints began pouring in from the parents of medical seat aspirants.
The SRM Group of institutions is also named as an accused in the case in which a total of 109 complaints came from medical seat aspirants and their kin that they have been cheated of Rs 75.39 crore. Madhan is believed to have collected the money on behalf of SRM group chairman Pachamuthu, with whose arrest the tally goes up to five. Four others earlier arrested include functionaries of IJK as well.
By the end of June, Madhan’s aide Vijayapandian was arrested, and he became the first person to be arrested in the medial seat cheating scam case. On July 22, IJK Doctors unit functionary, Dr. Bargavan Pachamuthu, of Pichandar Koil, Tiruchy, and the party’s Madurai unit functionary, Shanmugam, were arrested from Tiruchy, and Madurai, on July 22. The former had collected Rs 5 crore from 13 while the latter collected Rs 1.45 crore from 3 aspirants. IJK’s Dindigul unit functionary Babu was arrested the next day.
The police have been claiming that Madhan was hiding somewhere in Nepal, but failed to track him. Fresh information indicates he may be somewhere in Kerala, sources said. Efforts are on to trace Madhan’s aides Sudhir, and Guna.The case was registered based on a complaint from Dr Jayachandran, one of the victims.
