16 June,2011 06:44 AM IST | | A Correspondent
A producer-cum-distributor from the Kannada film industry, who vanished after swindling Rs 55 lakh from a local corporator, was finally nabbed after three years. Bala Muthaiah (49), who produced Kannada films like Ramakishna (starring Ravi Chandran and Sudeep) and was even a distributor of famous well-known film Apthamitra, was apprehended from an apartment in Hyderabad, where he had taken shelter.
In good faith
JP Nagar Inspector S K Umesh said that Muthaiah had taken the amount from Dharmarayaswamy Temple ward's BBMP Corporator Dhanaraj in 2005. Dhanaraj, who was also into the vegetable wholesale business, had dispersed the cash to Muthaiah through cheques to produce a Tamil movie and was anticipating huge profits.
The producer ran into losses shortly and the project flopped. He could not pay Dhanaraj back immediately, so he promised to do it later and issued a postdated cheque as surety and vanished.
Like the movies
Unable to contact or locate Muthaiah for directions on when to present the cheque, Dhanraj went ahead and deposited it in his account. After the cheque bounced, he filed a case in the local court and a non-bailable warrant was issued, but Muthaiah managed to evade arrest."Finally, we were tipped off about his presence at an apartment in Hyderabad, following which he was arrested on Tuesday night," Umesh said.
u00a0While he was in the city, Muthaiah was staying at Madhavanagar. "We have also learnt that he has cheated others by not returning their money, which he took to produce movies. He was leading a lavish lifestyle and frequently visited Bangkok on holiday. We suspect that he might have spent all the money this way," J P Nagar police added. He was produced before the court and remanded to judicial custody.
