Kannada actress and model Maria Susairaj, who was arrested in a Rs 2.68 crore cheating case, evaded most questions posed by the crime branch on Friday. She was arrested from Ahmedabad early on October 8 and remanded to police custody for four days.
She and four others have been accused of cheating local travel agents, promising discounted tickets of pilgrims going to Umrah in Mecca earlier this year.
“She did not reveal much during questioning and said that she does not remember her bank account number. Maria claims that she was in Mumbai and at her hometown in Mysore for the last few months. She is very shrewd and is evading most questions,” a police official said.
Investigations have revealed that Maria met Paromita Chakraborty, one of the accused in the fraud case, at the Byculla jail after she was convicted for destruction of evidence in the 2008 Neeraj Grover murder case. Crime branch officials said Paromita was in the same jail in connection with some other cheating case.
“Maria and Paromita met in jail and became friends. Paromita, who was arrested in a Rs 3.73 crore cheating case in 2011, is a professional cheater. She made Maria her partner after they both got out jail. Paromita used Maria’s celebrity status to convince travel agents to accept their discounted air tickets,” said sub-inspector J B Karmur, who tracked Maria on Wednesday.
Investigators said Maria and Paromita formed Parapan Travels with the help of Suraj Jaiswal, Henry Fernandez and Hanif Shaikh. “We will continue to question her to trace the money that Maria and her accomplices siphoned after duping three travel agents from Vadodara. We will also try to ascertain the whereabouts of the other accused and with whom Maria stayed for the last few months,” said inspector Rahul Patel.
Cops suspect the accused have cheated many more and may have invested the money in various places.
The accused contacted the travel agents in Vadodara and promised them air tickets for Umrah pilgrims at a 25% discount last year. Complainant Zaid Pasaliya had booked air tickets for 1,200 pilgrims for Rs 12,000 each against the actual fare of Rs 17,000, while other two agents had booked 300 tickets. When the agents reached Mumbai airport with the first lot of passengers, they learnt that the tickets had been cancelled. The accused cited technical problems and promised to return the money.
Maria’s lawyer Shailesh Patel, however, told the court that she had not promised discounts or done any transactions.