Actress leena Maria Paul (25) has been arrested in the National Capital in a joint operation by Delhi Police and Chennai Crime Branch. Paul will be seen in John Abraham production Madras Café, alongside the model-turned-actor.
Paul and her friend Balaji allegedly duped several people and firms across Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh of more than Rs 10 crore, promising Government contracts and supply orders.
She has acted in several Hindi and South Indian movies, including Husbands in Goa and Red Chillies. Balaji, alias Sekar Reddy alias Sukesh Chandrasekar, posed as grandson of former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu
M Karunanidhi. However, Balaji managed to escape police clutches.Nine high-end cars — including a Rolls Royce — and 81 expensive wristwatches were recovered from a rented farmhouse at village Asola of south Delhi’s Fatehpur Beri on Tuesday.
DCP (South) BS Jaiswal said, “Paul’s six security personnel, including three ex-servicemen, were also arrested with her from the farmhouse where she was staying. The men had all-India arms licences obtained from Haryana and Jammu, but they were not endorsed from the licensing Unit of Delhi Police within 30 days of their arrival in the Capital. A separate case under Section 30 of the Arms Act has been registered against them at Fatehpur Beri Police Station.”
Balaji, who has a passion for luxury cars, is believed to be involved in more than 100 fraud cases along with Paul. “When she was arrested by the team of anti-auto theft squad of south district led by Sub-Inspector Balihar Singh, she was wearing a branded
T-shirt worth Rs 20,000 and a designer watch worth over Rs 2 lakh,” said the DCP.Posing as Karunanidhi’s grandson, Balaji had duped several people, promising them that swanky cars would be given to them at cheap prices during a State Government auction.
After a case of cheating was registered in Chennai, the duo shifted to the Delhi farmhouse on May 12 and stayed in hiding.
They were paying Rs 4 lakh as rent of the farmhouse, while their tenant verification form was being scanned. The scamsters hired armed bouncers and travelled in a luxury car fitted with a beacon light.
Paul, who acted in National Award winner and Mohanlal-starrer ‘Red Chillies,’ and her friend Balaji were booked under Sections 420 (cheating), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 406 (breach of trust).
The couple had duped the Canara Bank in Chennai, where three persons, including a bank manager, had already been arrested for siphoning off Rs 19 crore.
The complaint was made on March 19 by the deputy general manager of Canara Bank in Teynampet, S Nallasivam. He told the police that the Ambattur branch manager had sanctioned Rs 19 crore to a customer, which was beyond the permissible limit.
The money was transferred to eight accounts of different banks. In another case, Balaji posed as an IAS officer and, along with Paul, duped a company on the pretext of facilitating in a Government project. On May 25, a team of Egmore Central Crime Branch, Chennai Police, approached Delhi’s AATS (south) for help in tracing the duo.
“Paul revealed that she did her schooling in Dubai, where her parents live. Her father is an engineer there. She was modeling and acting in films for the past two years,” said an officer.