Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (MS)
Bengaluru, Feb 8: In a strange incident, a person who owns a consultancy company in the city showed police the taste of their own medicine and filed an FIR against two police inspectors and a couple, who were entrepreneurs.
The consultancy firm was accused by the entrepreneur couple of receiving Rs 62 lac for a permanent residency visa in Australia to expand their business but not keeping their word. However, Dr Suresh K Menon (54), owner of Penton Consulting Pvt Limited, situated at HSR Layout in the city, approached the court and filed a counter complaint on the entrepreneur couple themselves and the police inspectors.
In the counter complaint filed by Dr Suresh, he has accused Chandrappa, inspector with Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) and Naragaraj, the then police inspector of HSR Layout police station of threatening and forcing to sign five cheques, which amounted to Rs 62 lac.
Now HSR Layout police is directed by the court to register an FIR against the entrepreneur couple Arakal Keshavan Ramesh and his wife Swarna Ramesh and the two erring police inspectors and conduct and investigation to reveal the truth behind the whole episode.
The FIR filed against the police personnel and the couple charges them with criminal intimidation, wrongful confinement to extort, wrongful restraint, robbery and assault or criminal force.
As per the details given by the police, Ramesh approached Menon, the owner of the consultancy firm in September 2018 and asked him to arrange for a permanent residency visa in Australia.
The couple, Ramesh and his wife, who is a MBA, B-Tech graduate, were doing the business of supplying food to the Indian navy and wanted to expand their business to overseas destinations.
Menon, the owner of the firm, assured the couple of providing permanent residency and took an amount totalling to Rs 62 lac as expenses towards tender awarding charges, security deposit, rent and deposit for an office in Brisbane. This money was given by the couple through Earnest Money Deposit (EDM).
Menon, assured the entrepreneur couple that he will get the things done through the Australian consulate in the city of Chennai as quickly as possible.
Ramesh, it is alleged, started to suspect the honesty of Menon, when Ramesh spotted Menon driving his car in the city but saying that he was in Chennai in the Australian consulate office. In his statement Ramesh said that, after spotting Menon in the city, who said to be in Chennai at that time he started suspecting about him and his promise of getting permanent residency visa.
After growing suspicious about Menon, Ramesh inquired about the business tenders and other documents at the consulate offices in the cities of Sydney and Brisbane in Australia through his friends who reside in Australia.
It was known through a friend of Ramesh, who inquired in a few banks and other offices in Australia that Menon is not doing anything but just passing time and faking the matter. Ramesh, who got infuriated, demanded with Menon to return his money. When Menon did not budge, Ramesh filed a complaint with the HSR Layout police.
An FIR against Dr Menon and his wife Rani Josh Menon was registered by the HSR Layout police on December 26, 2018 for forgery, cheating and other unlawful activities under the IPC.
The two police inspectors, who have been named in the counter complaint filed by Menon, called Menon to the police station and asked him to return the money that was given to his firm by the couple. Menon was made to handover the signed cheques for the total amount also.
As per the directions of the police, Menon did return Rs seven lac to the entrepreneur couple. However, he did not make any subsequent payments. Menon also filed a private complaint in the court against the police that they have forced him to sign the cheques.
In addition, Menon, the owner of the consultancy firm accused the couple of providing him with fake degree certificates because of which he was not able to make progress in his work of getting them a permanent residency visa in Australia.