3 held for robbing businessman

CHENNAI: Three persons, including a former pimp, were arrested for allegedly threatening and robbing a businessman of his cash, car and laptop at Egmore recently.Police said, D Ramesh (32), a cinema company manager of Nellithopu in Puducherry, was a business acquaintance of the victim, Thiruvaiyaru Gurunathan. On September 8, Ramesh asked Gurunathan to come to Pantheon Road, Egmore, in his car, promising to introduce him to a woman.As scheduled, Gurunathan went to meet him at 7 pm at the agreed venue, but was taken aback when he was confronted by a three-member Anti-Vice Squad. Under the threat of arrest, Gurunathan withdrew Rs. 15,000 with his ATM card and handed the cash to the trio, who also took away his vehicle and laptop after dropping him at Pulianthope, the police said.Sensing something amiss, he later lodged a complaint at the Egmore police station and a special team arrested Ramesh and his associates S Mahi alias Mahendran (35) and J Babu (29) on Thursday. On questioning Ramesh, it came to light that he was a former pimp. Since he was facing a severe cash crunch, he sent Mahendran, Babu and Dayasankar alias Dayalan, who acted as extras in films, to extort money from Gurunathan by posing like cops. The special team seized the stolen car, laptop and a scooty from the trio and has launched a search for Dayalan, who is absconding.