Chennai: The Kancheepuram police on Saturday detained Dhanalakshmi, 22, a BBA student in the UK and daughter of Sridhar Dhanapalan, 43, who is facing 43 cases including seven murders, but settled in Dubai.
“Yes, Dhanalakshmi was detained for questioning to know the whereabouts of her father. She was let off later,” said a senior police officer when contacted.
She was to board the 9.45 am Dubai-bound flight going via Colombo when security agencies detained her.
Sources indicated that it was a police strategy to put pressure on Sridhar to return to India and face the cases. Sources also said the police questioned her since Friday evening. She was questioned on Friday evening and also detained at the airport for questioning again.
Sridhar’s younger daughter is studying in Kancheepuram while his son who was studying in Coimbatore had joined his father in Dubai after the police allegedly started harassing him.
Police believe that Sridhar was involved in a good number of land grabbing cases and local police had opted to turn a blind eye on his activities for certain period which helped him to spread his network and build multi-crore real estate empire in Kancheepuram, the same place where he started his illegal activities as an illicit arrack seller decades ago.
Sridhar went to Dubai in 2013, when he was released from prison after finishing six months jail term in one case. Since then he had not returned to India. He now supplies diesel for generators at construction sites in Dubai.
According to a senior police officer, Kancheepuram police questioned Dhanalakshmi and recorded her statements. Police believe the woman could have been operating on behalf of her father and she was allegedly trying to finish a Rs 10 crore land deal during her visit to her home town.
On Friday evening, the police questioned her for more than two hours after her car was intercepted near Ranipet, while she was going to Vellore. She told police she was rushing to Dubai because her mother was not well.
