Woman collecting fund for fake home held after family ‘donates’ Rs 11L

The fraud came to light after Teynampet police received a complaint from a couple, Ravi and Suseela from Teynampet, who alleged that their son handed over Rs 11 lakh which kept hidden inside a bundle of old clothes on Saturday.

The arrested woman, identified as Mahalakshmi (35) had approached the couple’s house claiming that she was running an orphanage. The residents of the facility were in need of old clothes, Mahalakshmi told the couple’s son. Empathising with the cause, he handed over the old clothes bundle to the woman without checking with his parents. What he didn’t know was that the family had kept Rs 11 lakh that was meant for renovating their house inside the bundle.

Shocked to know that their son had handed over the bundle with cash to the woman, the couple tried to contact the orphanage. But they found there was no such institution, police said. Realising that they were conned, the couple lodged a complaint with Teynampet police, who identified the woman as Mahalakshmi with the help of CCTV footage. They caught hold of her and recovered the money.

During interrogations, the woman revealed that one Aravindan was her partner in crime. Police said that Aravindan had employed many youngsters to collect old clothes in the name of orphan children. He would later sell the clothes off to traders for tidy sum.