chennai a 35yearold secondhand car dealer of pallikaranai wanted for a 5 crore fraud managed to escape from the police team chasing him and surrendered before a george town magistrates court on friday m vijay samraj was later remanded in custody at puzhal prison after the magistrate rejected the investigation officers plea to take him into their custody police said samraj who ran a usedcar showroom in pallikaranai would collect original documents from car sellers he sold the cars but delayed handing over the original documents and gave them only a copy he then pledged the original papers with private financiers for a tidy sum more than 150 registration certificate books and original insurance documents have been found with financiers st thomas mount deputy commissioner of police p saravanan said samraj made a lot of money through selling cars and pledging the registration papers with private financiers those insisting on the original documents were obliged many others didnt and ended up being cheated although complaints were lodged against him police didnt take them seriously after a man named lakshmi narayanan approached police that a team led by madipakkam assistant commissioner of police s arockiam was formed coming to know of the hunt for him samraj put up his family at a rented house in royapuram and fled to kerala later he escaped to dubai via trichy airport in april samraj continued to speak to friends and his family members from dubai but police couldnt trace his location as he used the internet to make calls investigators said a science graduate and an expert in computer applications he used technology to hide his identity they added police managed to trace his wife but she showed them a divorce certificate that later turned out to be forged on june 23 he landed in bangalore came to chennai by road and stayed at royapuram a lodge he kept shifting from one place to another but police remained on his tail on friday they were about to nab him when he gave himself up in court