Bizman, associate held for cheating firm of 22 crore

Chennai: Central Crime Branch (CCB) of Tambaram City Police on Sunday arrested a businessman and his associate in connection with a 21.75 crore fraud. The suspects were identified as E V P Santhosa Reddy, 45, and his associate, V Vinod, 52.They were arrested based on a complaint from B Gunasekar, manager of Vels Film International Ltd. According to the complaint, Santhosa Reddy and his associates had approached the production company and entered into a MoU on June 25 to develop a joint entertainment hub. They agreed to develop an amusement park and cinema halls in the name of Vels on 34 acres belonging to EVP's family in Chembarambakkam. As per the deal, Reddy took 21.75crore from the Vels Group. However, despite collecting the money, Santhosha Reddy failed to honour the agreement. He went on to cancel the business contract illegally. He also threatened the executives of the Vels Group to vacate the premises, after which a police complaint was filed. Based on the orders of Tambaram city police commissioner A Amalraj, the CCB registered a case and after investigations, police arrested Santhosa Reddy and Vinod. They have been remanded in judicial custody. Police are searching for another associate Kiranraj.