MAKING OF A CONMAN

By Thomas Kannamala (Author News Chase : a novel on the thrills, frills & perils of news reporting)

Any bluff is good as long  it last. In the wake of recent media explosions on the escapades of antiquarian Dr Monson of Kerala, I am reminded of a similar story that I had reported in the Indian Express. Because of the parallels between the two con stories half a century apart, I hope this would be a useful case study for criminologists.

When the Chennai police first arrested him in1975 on a money swindle case, Dr Jai Sudarshan was known as K Parthasarathy. At that time an upright police officer in Tamil Nadu police Pon Paramaguru IPS was the Deputy Inspector General of Police. By the time Paramaguru had become the Chennai Police Commissioner two years later, Parthasarathy was already speeding along the Con route in top gear.

A few years later after his retirement, the very same Paramaguru had become the Seminar Co-ordinator in the Sudarshan promoted Management Professionals Association, and the second accused in a cheating case in which Dr Sudarshan himself was the first accused.

After his first arrest and bail, Sudarshan found that bright lights, media publicity and frequent VVIP interaction were booster components in his chosen profession. So the chubby, genial middle aged Parthasarathy changed his name to Jai Sudarshan, gave himself a doctorate in Philosophy, and the rank of a an Army Captain (retd).

Between 1979  and 1996 I had reported over 20 cases against him in the Indian Express, and he had filed as many  defamation cases against me.  As he found it too expensive to engage Lawyers to conduct the plethora of cases against him and the ones that he had filed in various courts, he added a Bachelor of Law degree to his name and started practice with a few fresh BL graduates as `Juniors’. One lawyer was S Srimathi, his first wife.

`Look here young man. I was first arrested in 1975 in a swindle charge. Nothing happened to me till now. By the time the final  verdict comes after these cases travelled through the trial court, appeals in the high court and later in the Supreme Court, I would not be around to suffer any jail’ was his famous quote to the CBI Officer who arrested him in 1990.

As far as I know, he had suffered imprisonment for six months only in a contempt of court case. He died at home at the age of 65 years. 

During one of my chats with him, he said he graduated from the Army Engineering College, and was a Captain in the Army. In the 1961 war with China, he was a prisoner of war in Shanghai. In recognition of his service, the GOI had given him five acres of land near the Chennai Airport and another five acres by in Sriperumbudur by the State government.

`But all Ex-Army Officers are invited for get togethers during ceremonial occasions at Fort St George. How come you never got invited there?’  I asked innocently.

`I shun publicity’ he said with a straight face.

I took pains to go through the entire Commissioned Officers list between 1958 and 64 maintained at the Army Headquarters with the help of the then Defence Services PRO, but could not find K Parthasarathy from Tamil Nadu.

Once the CBI officers had raided his office and house at Chennai T Nagar. This was  in connection with a postal franking machine tampering fraud. He was accused of hiring a franking machine from the General Post office, and went on franking all tapals from petty traders in T Nagar area at half the rate. This went on for several months causing big loss to the Postal Department and it lodged a complaint with the CBI.  When questioned about the broken seal, Sudarshan replied that the machine fell off from the table and got damaged.

While going through the documents that the CBI had seized, I found a discharge certificate which described Parthasarathy an Ambulance driver in the Army with the rank of Lance Naik. 

He never ceased to boast of his membership in several reputed international organisations. His contacts in high places included Kings, Queen Elizabeth, Presidents, Prime Ministers, Governors, Judges, IAS and IPS officers besides Chairmen of several reputed business houses.

As part of his con business, he floated the Management Professionals Association (MPA) at Chennai. It was his calling card to the high and mighty. He printed glossy brochures describing the MPA as an Institution jointly promoted by the world bodies like the ILP, UNDP, ECOSOC, ADB, and World Bank to develop human resources in India. It is flush with funds received as grant every year. He was forced to accept its Chairmanship in view of his exposure to various world bodies in the field of human resources development. 

He had a list of over 80 names including  Chief Justice of India, Tamil Nadu Governor, several  serving Chairmen of  Banks, and IAS and IPS Officers.  I wrote letters to all these individuals. Within days, I got replies from most of them.

The replies were almost identical. It said “I got a letter from the MPA seeking my support and blessing for the newly formed MPA and replied a routine thank you and best wishes. By a copy of this letter, I am asking MPA to remove my name from all their publications”.

After spinning this elaborate yarn of deceit, he started inviting well-reputed business leaders, Judges and Bureaucrats to address the seminars that the MPA organised in Chennai star hotels. 

Later, it was found out that the source of money for organising these seminars was mainly through job-racket, and cheating the public through all conceivable means. The seminar pictures were used extensively to establish himself as a thorough-bred Management Guru.

His rating among the public was so high that even Pon Paramaguru IPS who had retired as the Director General of Police in 1984 had joined the MPA as a Programme Coordinator in 1986. 

Unfortunately for Pon Paramaguru, it was that year when Dr Sudarshan had cheated K Lakshman, Regional Manager of the State Bank of India, Bangalore.

Sudarshan offered Lakshman a high paying job in a foreign bank at Kuwait.  Lakshman agreed and submitted an application. A few weeks later, Sudarshan showed him the order which said he was appointed as  the General Manager of a bank in Kuwait . Lakshman paid one month salary shown in the appointment order as service charge, collected the appointment order, and quit the SBI job. Only later, he found out that it was a fake order.

I asked him how a well experienced banker of his stature could be taken for a ride by a conman. He said it was the various name boards outside Sudarshan’s office, Pon Paramaguru as an Associate and the names of VVIP personnel in the expensive brochures had done the trick. Then he mused “the bigger the show, the larger the suckers”

In the complaint that Lakshman had registered with the Chennai  City police,  ex-DGP Pon Paramaguru was cited as the second accused. Needless to say he got away with an explanation that `Sudarshan persuaded me to join as Co-ordination Director of the MPA. I accepted it because I thought that I could interact with intellectuals and Professionals. I have already tendered my resignation from the MPA”.

About he being made second accused in the cheating case, the ex-DGP said "while in service, I may have taken stern action against some police officers. They may be trying to take revenge". 

But the fact remains that while he was the DGP of Tamil Nadu Police, the Chief Secretary Mr Chockalingam had circulated a confidential memo on Oct.14,1984 (SR-1/314/84) that several cases were pending against Dr Sudarshan and officials were advised not associate with him.

The hilarious twist is that the very same Chief Secretary after his retirement, had attended a meeting sponsored by the MPA. When asked about it, Chockalingam said he `vaguely remembered of such a circular, but could not recall the details".

An extract from my  proposed facto-fictional novel `The Making of a Conman’.

Oct.05,2021

Reason goes out when avarice comes in

By T Kannamala

`As I often say, the bigger the show, the larger the number of suckers. You mark my words Anand. The coming 21st century in this country would be an era of mega and super mega scams,’ Menon remarked. (Quote from the book News Chase)

I was reminded of these words of a frustrated journalist in the 1990s, while reading the exploits of self-styled antiquarian Dr Monson Mavunkal of Kochi. He  had taken hundreds of people including senior bureaucrats, police, film stars, politicians and businessmen for a royal ride. His bait was an alleged investment of Rs.2.62 lakh crore by an Arab Sheik in the HSBC Bank, India. The investment was to state a his rare antique collection. The antiques, he claimed, included  two pieces of the 30 silver coins that Judas collected for betraying Jesus, the butter pot of Lord Krishna, the throne of Tippu Sultan, different forms of quaran and rare paintings of Raja Ravi Varma. He offered sizable share from this mega Rs.2.62 lakh crore fund to his investors, if they loaned him speed money to get this amount released from the bank.

It was being withheld citing violations under the Foreign Exchange Management Act 1999.

Dr Monson has reportedly collected over Rs 10 crore from prospective partners and lived an opulent life in a rented bungalow converted to an antique museum with several high end foreign cars parked all over the compound. Black suited body guards from a security agency and the state police took care of his protection.

The bluff was called off when some of the `investors’ lodged complaints of cheating with the police. `The gullible investors would have believed if  Monson claimed that he had `Adam’s cooling glass and Noah’s binocular too’, a wise-crack commented.

All conmen operate on the maxim that `when greed comes in, reason goes out.’  Among the hundreds of Conman cases that I have reported, I gave the Oscar to a Chennai based operator Dr Jai Sudarshan. He was a top class white collar criminal who perfected this into a fineart.

The most amazing case was in the 1990s when he tricked the Zonal Manager to of the State Bank of India to resign his job, and collected a big service charge for getting the General Manager post in a foreign bank. The ZM resigned his job in the SBI, but found out later that the appointment order was a fake one. I took the ZM to the Chennai Police Commissioner and helped him to lodge a complaint of cheating against Dr Sudarshan.

A facto-fictional short-story on based on this case below.

Dr Sudarshan and the Bank Manager 

A short story by T Kannamala

The Editor's voice earlier in the day during the editorial meeting continued to boom in my ears -  a newsman is valued only as long as he could produce meaty news stories. I could not produce any worthwhile stories past several days while my colleagues sitting in the reporting hall were churning out their daily quota of news items. I was in a foul mood and had been sitting alone in the Bureau Chief’s cabin when there was a mild tap on the door. Being the deputy chief of the news bureau, I am allowed to use this cabin, whenever the Chief is not around.

Our attender Gopi peeked in and said a visitor wanted to meet me.

I gestured at him to send in the visitor. I imagined a scoop news on two legs walking in that could find place in the next day newspaper with my name below the headline.

A tall distraught man entered the cabin and introduced himself as the former Bangalore Zonal Manager (ZM) of the State Bank of India. I was a slightly disappointed. Bank executives, serving or former, usually never came up with good news stories. I waved him to a chair.

He thrust a three page appointment order towards me, as he sank into a chair.

The appointment order said one Mr Gopal Subramanian had been appointed as the General Manager of the Bank of Kuwait on a salary equivalent to Rs.two lakh a month, with accommodation and attended perks like free up and down air travel to India twice a year, one month leave and membership in two elite clubs in Kuwait City.  It added to my discomfort, as the monthly pay mentioned was almost double my annual salary.  As I was preparing to return him the letter with a fake smile, he said.

`Sir, I am Gopal Subramanian……”

`Congratulations’, I reacted mechanically without much enthusiasm.

Sensing my lack of interest, he said. `Sir, there is a big story of deception, and swindle behind it. Dr Sudarshan…..”

I stiffened and sat upright. He touched a vital nerve. I have been relentlessly chasing Dr Sudarshan for over a decade and knew that anything connected to him would be an interesting news story. I ordered two coffees and plodded him to come out with the full story.

The gist of the story was that he met Dr Sudarshan during a flight to Delhi from Chennai via Bangalore. With his uncanny banker’s instinct to assess people, he knew that Dr Sudarshan was a VVIP and struck conversation with him. Before getting off the flight, Sudarshan told him that his schedule included a meeting with the Consul General of Kuwait (CGK) in India. They exchanged visiting cards and said goodbye.

The visiting card described Dr Jai Sudarshan as the Chairman of the Management Professionals Association (MPA). On my request, he gave me a brochure about his organisation, as we were waiting to pick up our luggage. I found a long list of international celebrities including Queen Elizabeth, Tamil Nadu Governor, several industrialists, Chief Secretaries of States and senior IPS Officers as the patrons of the MPA. The brochure also contained several glossy pictures of the MPA meetings attended by leading lights of the day.

A few days later, I got a call from Sudarshan. Without any preliminaries, he said there was a General Manager’s vacancy in the Bank of Kuwait, and could I suggest someone from my bank. Without any hesitation, I offered my willingness to take up the post. I was due to retire soon and hoped this would be an exciting offer.

Sudarshan asked me to send him a detailed application with my background, academic qualifications, experience and the areas of my specialisation in the banking sector. As I was already on the lookout for some foreign jobs, I grabbed the opportunity. Within an hour, I prepared a formal application and sent it by registered post to Dr Sudarshan.

Two days later, he called and said my application had been forwarded to the CGK, and he wanted to know if the applicant could join at short notice.

I said that I needed just a month and would submit my resignation on hearing from him.

A week later Dr Sudarshan called and said my name had been short listed for appointment, but I should appear before the CGK at New Delhi for a personal interview. If he is satisfied with my credentials, the appointment order would be handed over to me. He suggested to me to meet him at his Chennai office, if I wished to see a copy of the appointment order marked to him.

During the week-end, I drove down to Chennai, and saw the copy of my appointment order. It was an irresistible offer. But I was dismayed, as I could not leave the headquarters due to the annual account closing works in the bank.

Sudarshan asked me to stay back till Sunday evening to sort out the issue with the CGK.

Sunday morning, he called me to his office and gave me the good news. He had persuaded the CGK to arrange my interview in Chennai itself. A three member committee comprising a retired bank General Manager, a Chartered Accountant and Sudarshan himself would conduct the interview. It would be video graphed and sent to the CGK. He gave me a set of sample questions and advised to come prepared for the interview in the afternoon.

The interview went on well, as I knew all the possible questions and answers. Sudarshan said I would know the result within a week.

Sudarshan called me three days later and said the CGK was not impressed with my  command of the English language. Before I could recover from the shock, Sudarshan consoled me that it could be fixed and asked me to visit Chennai once again.

During the second visit he asked me to address a meeting of the MPA members in the evening and speak on the duties, risks and responsibilities of the Zonal Manager of a nationalised bank. I prepared and delivered a reasonably good speech. Sudarshan video graphed it and said he hoped to convince the CGK with this video that I had a good command of the English language.

Before leaving Chennai, he made me swear that till I got the original appointment order on hand, nobody should know this matter. I agreed as it suited me too. Not even my wife knew it.

By the middle of next week, the suspense was over. He called and congratulated me, and sought to know how fast I could quit the present job. I said a month. He said the CGK had sent the original appointment order to his Chennai Office and that I could collect it any time. I promptly submitted my resignation letter.

I was turning crimson with anger, as I had already guessed the rest of the story. There was a familiar pattern and I had been publishing regularly the similar exploits of Dr Sudarshan. In a strangled voice, I told him `not only the Kuwait bank, but no other bank in the world would touch him even with a barge pole.'

Sensing the change of my mood, he said in an apologetic tone that only after he lost the job, paid Rs.one lakh as service charge from his retirement benefit to Dr Sudarshan  to collect the appointment order, and broke the good news to his friends, he had come to know of  my articles about the man who arranged the job.

He wanted my help to lodge a police complaint. Here is my complaint sir.

I read through the well-documented complaint, and asked Gopi to take a photocopy of it immediately.  Meanwhile I called my friendly General Crime Assistant Commissioner Murugavel and said I had sent a person to him with my visiting card for a favour.

PS : One more case was registered against Dr Sudarshan under IP sections 405 (breach of trust), 420 (cheating) and 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating), and I got an exclusive news story for the day.  

To know more about life and times of Dr Sudarshan, please visit<https://harringtonpostnews.blogspot.com/2019/11/thug-in-black-gown.html>