Coimbatore
Feb 2: The arrest of a priest Sekar Gurukkal,41, on Thursday revealed
a tale of deceptions in which the victims were lured to join a fictitious
trust or perform a pooja.
It also
made a person come forward with a claim that the same conman once duped
him and escaped with Rs 35,000.
Arun told
police that, he was a neighbour of Kurukkal who was then living at Pappanaickenpalayam.
The priest ptomised to make him life member of ‘Raja Rajeswari Trust’
and took from him Rs 35,000. Arun was shocked when, after a few days,
the priest escaped with his money.
Arun was
not the only victim fooled this way. Language papers reported the story
of a financier, Gopalalakrishnan. He too was cheated by the priest to
the tune of Rs.28,000. Then a lawyer lost 40 sovereign jewels after the priest promised
him to conduct special pujas.
The filing of a case by a widow, who lost her jewels and land patta led to the arrest of the conman
Police
said they did not receive any complaints about these two cases but made
an announcement urging people to give any information they might have
about the priest.
A widow
came to file a case against the priest for running away with her jewels
and land patta. Shanmughasundari,34, was a regular visitor to Angalamman
temple at Sundakamuthur, Perur. The priest told her that she was suffering
from a ‘predha dosha’ after the death of her husband. He asked for
her jewels in order to perform a ‘swarna puja’ as ‘parikaram’
(solution). She parted with her 18 sovereign jewels.
In due
conversation the priest also came to know that she was in possession
of 84 cents of land in Uthukuli along Tirupur-Erode road. He used the
same ‘trick of the trust’, with her. To become its life member,
she signed some documents without knowing that she was, in fact, giving
him the power of attorney to sell off the land. He even found a buyer
who agreed to pay Rs 40 lakhs for the land and took an advance of Rs
5 lakh from him.
All these
happened during the last three years. After searching in vain for him
at several places. Shanmughasundari filed a complaint with Perur police.
The police set an informer for him at certain places after circulating
his photographs. Thursday last, the priest was spotted by the informer
and the police immediately arrested him, recovered 10 sovereigns of
gold and remanded him in judicial custody.
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