Chennai: A petition has been filed in the Madras high court to direct the police to register a complaint, that alleged that one Thennarasu, claiming to be a close friend of the personal assistant of former Transport minister, had collected Rs 1.14 crore on the promise of getting jobs in transport department and cheated the general public.
Justice R. Mala before whom the petition filed by J. Sridharan, working as an assistant manager in Tamil Nadu transport department, came up for hearing, ordered notice, returnable by a week, to city police Commissioner and Inspector, Vepery police station.
The petitioner said he was a native of Villupuram district. During his work, he was introduced to one V. S. Thennarasu by a conductor Saravanan. Thereafter, they became friends. Thennarasu told him that he knew the then Transport minister Senthil Balaji and he was a close friend of the Minister’s P A Ramesh.
He also showed the appointment orders obtained by him and informed him that he got employment for more than 50 conductors and drivers. He also asked him to inform him the candidates who received interview letters and he will arrange employment to them. Believing his words and in order to help his relatives and villagers, he gave details of interview letters of candidates and paid a total of Rs 1.86 crore to Thennarasu.
However, Thennarasu arranged jobs for only three drivers and informed him that he spent Rs. six lakh for the same. But, he could not arrange jobs for others. When he asked him to return the money, he informed him that he paid Rs 30 lakh to one Rajkumar for arranging conductor jobs for 10 persons. He also informed him that he had paid Rs one crore for getting orders from the new minister.
However, he could not arrange jobs as promised. When he insisted on repayment of money, he paid Rs 66 lakh. But the balance amount of Rs 1.14 crore was not paid till date. Therefore, he gave a complaint to the Chennai police Commissioner.
The inspector of police, Vepery, called him for enquiry after a week and thereafter the Sub-inspector took up investigation. But, no action was taken so far, he added and sought a direction to the City police commissioner to appoint an officer in the rank of Assistant commissioner of police to register the complaint, investigate and file a final report.
