Chennai: The Central Crime Branch in Chennai police has registered a criminal conspiracy case against actor-turned-politician J.K. Rithesh alias Sivakumar for allegedly cheating a US citizen of Indian origin of Rs 2.18 crore.
His wife Jotheeswari, aides Naganathur Sethupathi, Nagendiran, Basheer alias Actor Vaali alias Vijayakarthik, Suresh Kannan and Muralidharan have also been listed as accused in the CCB case.
According to the complaint received software consultant S. Athinarayanan, Rithesh had taken Rs 3 crore from him, promising high returns, when he was a DMK MP in the Lok Sabha, elected from Ramanathapuram. “He took me to Delhi, introduced me to a few MPs. Advised me about possible investments”, Athinarayanan said in his complaint, explaining how he was led to believe in just two weeks since meeting him in January 2014 that Rithesh was a highly influential person.
“Rithesh took the money in cheques in the names of his associates, in multiple installments promising high returns. Within few months, I found his promises were not taking shape and I started asking him to return my money”, Athinarayanan said in his complaint.
“As I had given the money from my foreign exchange savings, he agreed to pay Rs 3-crore and issued the 3 cheques last year. All the three cheques bounced”, he said. The cheque-bounce case is on trial in the Poonamalee court.
Rithesh had earlier denied taking any money from Athinarayanan, whom the actor recollected as a friend’s brother. He even claimed that he had lost some of his cheque leaves and the ‘bounced’ cheques with Athinarayanan could be among the missed ones. He had filed a ‘missing’ complaint with the police, Rithesh had claimed.
However, Athinarayanan insisted he had collected the cheques for '3 crore personally from Rithesh. CCB has now booked cases against Rithesh and others under sections 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and 120 B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Deccan Chronicle had a report on September 30, 2016 on how the politico allegedly manipulated Athinarayanan into paying him money promising high returns.
