Book cheating case against ex-minister Viswanathan: Court

Loganathan (54), a realtor from Kajamalai in Tiruchy, owned 50 acres at Iluppur in Pudukkottai district. In 2015, a person named Kamaraj approached Loganathan claiming himself to be the benami of the then electricity minister Nathan R Viswanathan and asked him for 200 acres to establish a solar power plant. The person also paid Rs 20 lakh as advance for the job to Loganathan. 

Subsequently, Loganathan contacted a few land owners close to his property in Iluppur. He managed to pool up and purchase 150 acres by paying around Rs 50 lakh as advance to the owners. Later, Loganathan received the land documents from the owners and handed over them to Kamaraj. After that, there was no information from Kamaraj and Loganathan was not able to establish contact him. 

In January 2016, Loganathan somehow met Kamaraj personally and demanded him to pay Rs 50 lakh which he had paid as advance to the owners for the lands. But Kamaraj reportedly refused to pay the amount. 

So, Loganathan sent a legal notice through his advocate to Kamaraj. Enraged at this, Kamaraj and his few associates threatened Loganathan and his family members of dire consequences. 

Loganthan later lodged a complaint against Natham Viswanathan, Kamaraj and two others for more than 15 times, but the police reportedly refused to accept it. 

Left with no option, Loganathan approached the Juducial Magistrate Court II and sought a direction to the police to register a complaint against the accused. 

On Thursday, Magistrate Muralidhara Kannan, who heard the case, directed the KK Nagar police to register a case against Natham Viswanathan and his aides Kamaraj, Arunkumar and Baskar under four IPC sections. The Magistrate also ordered the police to complete the investigation within a month and submit a report to the court.