Special DRO arrested for cheating Karur bizman Rs 15 crore

TIRUCHY: Karur police arrested a special DRO of TIDCO in Chennai on Tuesday on charges of cheating a businessman from the town with Rs 15 crore with fabricated documents of purchase orders for the government of Assam.

According to sources, P Nallamuthu has been running a textile business in Karur for more than 20 years. During COVID-19, his firm manufactured PPE kits in large volumes and other products used during the period.

At this juncture, S Surya Prakash, the then DRO of Karur, currently Special DRO of TIDCO had interacted with Nallamuthu and assured him of fetching orders from the government of Assam and introduced him to A Karthikeyan, the then section officer and present BDO, Erode, who would help him fetch the contract worth Rs 100 crore.

They even asked Nallamuthu to send samples to Assam through ‘officials’ known to them and they introduced him to S Rajkumar, S Muthukumar and Boopathy Selvaraj who would help him fetch orders.

Believing their words, Nallamuthu had sent all the details about his textile firm and sent money to the tune of Rs 60 lakh on different occasions.

Later, the team created a false purchase order and asked Nallamuthu to send the consignment to Assam to a particular address which was similar to that of the Director of DIMA HASAO Autonomous Council Assam. He had sent a consignment worth Rs 15 crore.

However, Surya Prakash and the gang sold the commodities in the market and kept the money with them. Subsequently, Nallamuthu lodged a complaint and a case was registered on October 23, 2024.

On Tuesday night the police arrested Surya Prakash in Chennai and brought him back to Karur on Wednesday.

He was later produced before the Karur Judicial Magistrate Court 1 and the Magistrate Bharath Kumar who heard the case ordered to remand him in judicial custody.