For nearly four years, he unsuccessfully tried to make film viewers in Tamil Nadu laugh with his cheap slapstick comedy. Now, as Srinivasan, the self-styled comedian, cools his heels in Vellore Prison, hundreds of people across the country shed tears. Not that they are moved by the plight of the actor but because he cheated them crores by promising soft and easy loans. His clientele consists of only high value businessmen as Srinivasan will not do business if the amount in question is less than Rs5 crores!
A graduate from Madurai, Srinivasan claims he is a trained acupuncture specialist. To drive home his claims, he flashes a correspondence course certificate in acupuncture issued by a Chinese University. Since the certificate did not bring him any income as people in Chennai were wary of anything that is Chinese, he switched over to films midway with the hope of making people laugh. Since his jokes and antecedents failed to bring the much needed laughter, Srinivasan was forced to change tracks.
He launched Baba Trading Company which offered large sums of low-interest loans to businessmen. loan seekers were ready to pay him millions as commissions. Devadasan, a Kannur-based jeweller, paid him Rs21.5 lakh as commission to secure a Rs5.35 crore loan in August 2010. The loan did not materialise even in May 2012. When a tense Devadasan approached Srinivasan in May 2012, the actor issued him a private bank cheque of Rs2 crore. “The cheque bounced and I asked him to return the commission. He issued another cheque for Rs20 lakh and that too got bounced,’ said Devadasan.
When Devadasan went to City Police Commissioner’s office in Chennai there were more than a dozen victims waiting with complaints about bounced cheques issued by Srinivasan. Ranganathan from Ongole in Andhra Pradesh, Jagit Singh from Chandigargh, a physically challenged Prakash Rathod and Ravinder Kumar from Thirumangalam in Tamil Nadu had a lot to tell about the ‘heroic deeds’ of Srinivasan which may flabbergast even seasoned money lenders and usurers.
Jagit Singh approached Srinivasan for a loan of Rs200 crore. “It’s so easy. Don’t worry, my dear friend. As the loan amount increases, we can get it easily,” Srinivasan reportedly told Jagit. The latter paid him Rs2 crore as commission. “Both the loan and the commission amount did not materialise even after two years,” said one of the police officers probing the case.
Jagannathan, a Chennai-based businessman, wanted a loan of Rs3 crores. “Sorry brother, I am not interested in any business less than Rs5 crore.” Srinivasan told Jagannathan. The hapless Jag said he would take a loan for Rs7 crore and he paid a commission of Rs70 lakh. Not a single person got loan or the commission paid to Srinivasan.
Police officials are rather baffled by the ease with which Srinivasan and his likes cheat the general public and that too educated lot. “Whenever one comes across claims about unbelievably low interest rates for loans and high rates of interest for deposits, they should alert the law enforcing agencies.
There are rules and regulations issued by the Reserve Bank of India regarding financial businesses,” said Nanjil Kumaran former City Police Commissioner, Chennai.
The climax of the story was yet to come. Srinivasan, arrested on April 26 was remanded to judicial custody and sent to Puzhal Central Prison in Chennai suburbs. But the jail authorities were unanimous in their opposition to make Srinivasan an inmate in Puzhal Jail.
“He cheated us when he was brought here as a remand prisoner in 2011. He had promised us a lot for extra facilities but did not pay a single rupee for his stay here,” said one of the jail staff.
The standard rate for extra facilities for a remand prisoner is Rs50,000 per day. Srinivasan did not pay anything and this upset the jail staff. Following stiff resistance from the jail staff in Puzhal, he was sent to Vellore Prison. “We have alerted our colleagues in Vellore about his modus operandi,” said a Puzhal staff.