'A' category history-sheeter O.V. Ranjith, who holed up in Andaman, was arrested by a special team of police after a dramatic chase from the city. He went on the run after attacking his aide at his residence in Saidapet.
He was arrested by the team in Port Blair airport before boarding a flight to Bengaluru in the wee hours of Monday and was brought to the city for inquiry in connection with half-a-dozen criminal cases.
The accused, Ranjith alias Ranjithkumar, is a native of Othiyur village in Chengalpattu. He has various cases, including three murders, pending in Mamallapuram, Cuddalore, Chengalpattu, Thirumangalam, Seekazhi and Sadras. He gained notoriety following his involvement in land grabs and extortions on East Coast Road and in city limits. He was previously with Puratchi Bharatham, and presently, a functionary of the Congress, the police said.
He recently shifted his residence to the eight floor of a residential apartment adjacent to Maraimalai Adigal bridge in Saidapet. On March 31, a man fell from the third floor of the apartment. The police identified him as ‘T. Nagar’ Ranjith, who was O.V. Ranjith’s driver. He was attacked by the latter after being suspected of ratting out his employer’s affair to his wife. He managed to escape and climbed down to the third floor of the building using a rope. When he tried jumping to the ground, he broke his legs while O.V. Ranjith escaped from the building.
A senior police officer said, “Our team traced him to Port Blair and rushed there to secure him. He was remanded in judicial custody after being brought back to the city.”
Ranjith’s wife arrested
Meanwhile, the Entrustment Document Fraud (EDF) wing of the Central Crime Branch arrested Ranjith's wife Sunitha, 34, for allegedly cheating a businessman in Medavakkam to the tune of ₹12.49 crore.
The police said the complainant, Seenivasan, said that he had a ‘trading business’ in Saudi Arabia and came down to the city in 2020 following the COVID-19 lockdown. When he learned he would be not able to return, Sunitha asked him to invest in two firms that she and her family were running and offered to double his investment in a year. Trusting her words, he transferred ₹12.49 crore to the accounts she mentioned.
The police said she failed to return the promised amount to the complainant, and the investigation found that the firms she claimed to be running were unregistered.
