JOIN USBased on the information, a CID team took Singanamala Ramesh Babu into custody from Chennai and started questioning him. They also conducted a search at his premises and other places to find out any incriminating material and documents, CID Additional Director General of Police S V Ramana Murthy said.
"The accused will be produced before a local court in Chennai and will be brought to Hyderabad on a transit warrant," he said.
The CID is also investigating three other cases, in which, Ramesh Babu is a co-accused.
B Vaijayanthi Reddy, a resident of Jubilee Hills here, had complained to the Central Crime Station (CCS) of Hyderabad police in January this year against Ramesh Babu and Bhanu Kiran (the prime accused in factionist Gangula Suryanarayana Reddy alias Suri's murder) for threatening to kill her and members of her family for asking them to repay Rs 14.69 crore, she had lent to them.
The case was transferred to CID last month, Murthy said.CID official said that Ramesh Babu and his wife Vidyadhari had approached the complainant and her husband seeking financial assistance for film production business.
He has said that he was the owner of a property measuring 9 acres, located in Poonjeri village on Mahabalipuram Road in Kanchipuram district of Tamil Nadu. He then obtained a loan of Rs 7.62 crore from the complainant.
Ramesh Babu again asked for Rs 10.50 crore loan from them and repaid Rs 3.42 crore to the lenders through registration of 3 flats in Hyderabad. Though, he still owes Rs 14.69 crore to the complainant excluding interest, he said.
Inquiries made by the complainant disclosed that the said land near Mahabalipuram Road, has been shown by the accused as a security to several other persons, from whom, he obtained loans in a similar way, Murthy said.
"When Vaijayanthi started pressing for repayment of the loan, the accused, on October 10 last year, called her and her husband to Balaji Colour Lab (owned by Ramesh and another Film producer Chillara Kalyan) in Filmnagar and introduced them to Bhanu Kiran (who was once a close aide of Suri) and several other anti social elements," the CID official said.
"The couple was seriously threatened by Ramesh and Bhanu Kiran to forget about the money, lest they will be eliminated and were also threatened of physical harm, if they approached the police," the official added.
Singanamala Ramesh Babu is also facing cases pertaining to cheating the managing partner in Shalimar Video Company Md Ashraf (of Rs 34.75 lakh) by making a false promise of giving the film rights of a Telugu the movie 'Komarampuli'.
The third case pertains to cheating and misappropriation (to the tune of Rs 34.75 lakhs) by Kalyan and Ramesh over providing VCD and DVD rights of the movie 'Khaleja' to the complainant Md Ashfaq of Universal Home Entertainment, the top CID official added.