Conman arrested for cheating public

19 March 2010 10:18 am

By Gandhya Senanayake

A conman allegedly wanted for defrauding several individuals for large sums of money in exchange for greener pastures was arrested by the Colombo Frauds Investigations Bureau this week. The hunt for the suspect had been ongoing for two years after several complaints were lodged against him.

According to the police, the suspect had initially been on the wanted list for defrauding major leasing companies and it was only after he was arrested that they had learnt that he had been running a human trafficking racket.

Officials at the Colombo Frauds and Investigations Bureau told Daily Mirror online that the suspect had been holding two passports in the name of ‘Casipillai Ganeshamoorthi’ and ‘Ponnadurai Pathmanadan’ and had cheated the public under these two names.

“Initially we believed that these two names belonged to two different suspects. One, wanted for defrauding leasing companies and the other wanted for extracting money from the people in exchange to send them overseas. However it was after we arrested him that we realized that it was the same man,” officials said.

The suspect had initially been residing in Trincomalee but had later moved to Colombo. He was arrested after police received a tip off early this week.

All the individuals who had gone overseas with the help of the suspect have been deported back to the island and the police believe that several more indivitulas are yet to come forward to complain against him. “Many people do not know that this suspect has been arrested. Therefore we urge the public that if they have been cheated by any individual with the above two names, then to come forward and lodge their complaints,” the official said.

The Fraud Bureau is conducting further investigations. (Daily Mirror online)