Disabled man cheats people of lakhs, held

As per the case, Saravanan, a private company employee, approached Sureshkumar (55) last month at his office – DLS Developers on Rameswaram street in T Nagar – to buy a piece of land along the Old Mahabalipuram Road. After showing him a plot worth Rs 80 lakh, Sureskumar took Rs 10 lakh as advance to release the plot’s documents that he claimed was under mortgage.

Thereafter, he gave Saravanan a set of documents and introduced a woman as the owner of the land.

However, when Saravanan verified the identity and address of the owner, he found it to be fake. When he asked Sureshkumar about it to find out if the latter had also been cheated, to his utter shock, he was threatened and warned against approaching the police. “Even if police arrest me, they can’t do anything because I’m paralysed, and I would come out on bail in 15 days.

But you won’t get your money back. I have even transferred a police officer on the charges of assaulting me,” Saravanan quoted Sureshkumar as claiming.

When Saravanan approached police, they told him about Sureshkumar’s background and how he gets away with all the crime because of his disability. He has already been remanded a couple of times for cheating people in a similar manner, said police, adding that he was arrested for cheating a retired teacher of Rs 32 lakh only two months ago. Following the complaint, police arrested Sureshkumar, his wife and son, and two others including one Rajasekaran for preparing fake seals and stamps, and Anand for creating fake IDs for imposter owners.