Gang of 5 held for land fraud near Tirupur

TIRUPUR: A five-member gang was arrested on charges of forging a power of attorney (POA) document after impersonating a land owner. They had attempted to pledge the documents with a private finance company for a loan of Rs 2 crore.Police sources said that A Arunachalam, a businessman and resident of Gandhi Nagar, owned 9.14 acres of land worth nearly `20 crore at Chettipalayam area near Tirupur. On December 13 last year, a private finance firm enquired with Arunachalam regarding his land documents that were pledged to the company for a loan of Rs 2 crore. Alerted over the issue, he checked with the district registrar office and was shocked to know that a POA document was registered to M K Prakash from his name.After making private inquiries, Arunachalam then registered a complaint with the anti-land grabbing cell at the district police office. In his complaint, Arunachalam said, “Ramasamy(50), a resident of Kumarananthapuram in Tirupur, impersonated as me at the registrar office and created a forged POA document to M K Prakash (29) from Angeripalayam at Venkamedu in Tirupur.”He charged that three others — B Prakash (29) from Velampalayam, S Murugesan (58) of Kumarananthapuram and Govindaraj (59) of Ammapalayam — were also involved in the forgery.The District Crime Branch registered a case, and after investigation, the police arrested all five persons on Tuesday night. Meanwhile, the police also seized bogus ration cards, voter identity cards, fake seals and documents that were used to forge the POA document. Two cars were also seized from them.