Madhavan faked I-T raid: Imposter

The man who landed at Deepa’s residence early morning on Saturday claimed to be an IRS officer there to conduct searches. The information about impending I-T raids caused a flutter, and brought scores of journalists and also local police personnel. In the melee, the man scaled a wall and escaped the premises, and city police had formed special teams to track him down.

Even as the hunt was on, he surrendered at Mambalam police station on Sunday night, but not before making public his statement in a video in which he alleged that it was planned by Madhavan to extort money from Deepa.  Though the fake I-T department identity card that he flashed on that day had his name as Mitesh Kumar, he introduced

himself as Prabhakaran in the video, an MBA graduate from Villupuram, whose family is into eatery business. Prabhakaran claimed he first met Madhavan when the latter visited his mess in Puducherry four months ago. “After I recognised him and started talking, he asked if I wanted to act in films. He visited the mess again two months later and collected my photo. Two weeks ago, he called me for the first time, using WhatsApp, and told me he would send me a courier. The package sent by some anonymous person had the I-T identity card but with my photo. He called me again and asked me to act as an I-T official,” said Prabhakaran in the video. 

According to him, it was Madhavan who asked him to come to the house on Saturday. When he reached there, Madhavan apparently asked him to threaten her with raid. “Later, a lawyer came and questioned me, and I panicked after the media assembled at the spot. Then Madhavan asked me to escape through another route,” he said. 

T Nagar Deputy Commissioner G Aravindan said Prabhakaran surrendered after realising that he cannot escape the special teams that were hunting for him. “He is well educated and seems to be tech savvy. We are probing different angles, and suspect the involvement of three others. We will question Madhavan, too,” he said. 

Police said Madhavan was absconding. He was unreachable over phone, while Deepa was not available at her house. On Saturday, Madhavan had told DTNext that he had never met the man. It was he who clicked the photo of the fake identity card and search warrant, and also filed police complaint.