Police register case against ex-minister in cheating case

The KK Nagar police have registered a case under Sections 120 B (criminal conspiracy), 294 (b) (uttering obscene words), 448 (house trespassing) and 506 part II (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), against Viswanathan, V Kamaraj, Arun Vijayakumar and ‘Thottam’ Bhaskar, said to be close to the former Minister, based on a direction from Tiruchirapalli Judicial Magistrate (JM) Court.

Alleging undue delay in taking action against his complaint, the plaintiff C Loganathan (56) approached the court, which directed the KK Nagar police to register the case and file a report in a month. 

In his petition, Loganathan, who was engaged in real estate business, stated that he owned about 50 acres of land at Iluppur in Pudukottai district. He was approached by Kamaraj of Tirunelveli district in June 2015 who claimed to be close to Viswanathan, the then Electricity Minister, seeking 200 acres of land, including the 50 acres owned by the complainant, for setting up the solar power project. As per the deal, Kamaraj paid Rs 20 lakh as advance to Loganathan for procuring the land. The realtor is said to have paid Rs 50 lakh as advance for purchase of the remaining 150 acres of land from other land owners. 

Documents pertaining to 200 acres of land were given to Kamaraj by Loganathan along with the details of the other land owners. However, deviating from the agreement, Kamaraj was said to have directly dealt with the owners of other lands in settling the money without him. 

Loganathan asked Kamaraj to return Rs 50 lakh spent by him. As he refused to pay, Loganathan sent a legal notice to the former Minister in early 2016. However, the Minister claimed that he had no connection with Kamaraj. 

Following the dispute, Kamaraj, his associates Arun Vijayakumar and ‘Thottam’ Bhaskar allegedly threatened Loganathan and his family members at the behest of the Minister. 

It may be recalled that the former Minister was facing another cheating case in Dindigul district. AIADMK youth wing deputy secretary of the Dindigul district A Sabapathy claimed that Viswanathan had cheated him of Rs 2.97 crore. Viswanathan is now with AIADMK (Amma) faction led by former Chief Minister O Panneerselvam.