Self-styled spiritual godman held for duping businesswoman

, Nov 18: A self-styled spiritual godman was arrested from Kottayam in Kerala for allegedly duping a businesswoman to a tune of Rs 3.65 lakhs in the city, police said on Monday.

The accused, Paul Nair (48), who is also an engineer, was nabbed by a team of police personnel from Imambada police station from Kottayam last week where he was hiding. He was brought here on November 16 and produced at a local court which remanded him to police custody for three days, they said.

An offence against Nair was registered in the police station on May 21, 2013, under section 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code, investigation officer sub-inspector Mukund Kawade said.

As per the complaint lodged by Saroj Aniruddha Barme (35), a resident of Shivshakti Nagar here and owner of an engineering works company, Nair, while he was residing in a city locality here, approached her for selling a grinding machine worth Rs six lakh in 2011.

Police has booked Nair under section 420 (cheating) of the IPC

Nair told Saroj that the she should pay 60 per cent money for order booking and the balance amount after delivery. Saroj had paid Rs 3.65 lakh to Nair in 2011. When she failed to get delivery of the machine, she went to the former's office after a month only to find it locked.

She then approached Imambada police and lodged the complaint.

During investigation, the police did not get any clue about him for a long time. However, they recently traced his call and managed to find his location in Kerala.

Later, a team of Imambada police nabbed him from his home with the help of Kerala police.

Paul Nair was attached to a prayer group of Catholic church and had allegedly duped many believers assuring them of solving problems in their troubled lives, police said, adding that they are carrying out further investigations in this regard.

PTI