Chennai: Madhan used Whatsapp and Skype to help him stay off the police scanner after he flew out of the City until his arrest on Sunday evening. Sources said that he shunned mobile phones he had used in the past except for one phone while he kept in touch with only his girlfriends whose contacts acted as couriers for him to shuttle money as and when needed. He left no digital footprint for cops to trace him.
Madhan, who landed in Haridwar from Chennai, kept shifting his base to Imphal, Pune, Devaprayag and Bengaluru. He drove the length of the country in an imported Porsche and got ready for his purported ‘jalasamadhi’ drama, which culminated in Tirupur. He drove the car himself and always travelled alone. He grew a moustache and beard. He would invite his girlfriends over to stay with him wherever he moved, which is why he purchased the house in Roorkee.
The breakthrough came following the arrest of Madhan’s aides – manager Sudhir aka Venkata Sudhir and accountant Guna aka Gunasekaran. Sustained interrogations revealed that Madhan’s girlfriend from Vadapalani was holding Madhan’s cash. Quizzed, the woman revealed about the Roorkee property purchase and the money she had couriered Madhan through her friend. She would send money as and whenever Madhan told her to. As the investigations progressed, the list of Madhan’s girlfriends too grew.
From Roorkee, the focus shifted to Tirupur as the couriers seemed to frequent that particular house. At Tirupur, his girlfriend had built a secret chamber behind a wardrobe in the in a mezzanine over the first floor three months ago. Madhan had recently shifted to Tirupur and moved into the accommodation with a bed, an airconditioner and a TV to beat boredom.
Madhan is the eighth person to be arrested in the medical seat scam involving Rs 84.27 crores collected from as many as 123 aspirants. The scam also led to the arrest of SRM Group chairman TR Pachamuthu.
