coimbatore the coimbatore rural police arrested a 53yearold man on tuesday for cheating 44 people of more than rs 128 crore by promising to get them jobs in the western countriesa police officer attached with the district crime branch dcb said the accused d chinnappan alias david paul of subramaniyampalayam near thudiyalur had finished ba economics in udhagamandalam in the nilgiris district and moved to coimbatore more than a decade ago david paul ran a firm called goodness ventures from an apartment at thudiyalur engaging in real estate and financial consulting he befriended rajkumar 50 of the nilgiris district in 2019 he told rajkumar that he met a foreign national in kerala who asked him to send people for work to european countries and the us the police officer saidbelieving david rajkumar shared the information with his closed friend s sahayaraj 54 of mugalivakkam in chennai and they decided to go abroad for work the duo paid a total of rs 1249 lakh to david for the purpose in november and december 2019 they also shared the information with their other friends across the state at least 42 of their friends expressed interest in a foreign job and paid money for the purpose sahayaraj and rajkumar collected more than rs 116 crore from their friends in 2019 and 2020 and transferred the money to davids bank accounts the officer saidmeanwhile the pandemic intervened in 2020 and lockdowns were imposed in countries across the worlddavid citied the pandemic and evaded inquiries on jobs after the relaxation of lockdown norms sahayaraj and rajkumar approached david again david gave them offer letters from a company based in the us when rajkumar checked with the firm he realised that the letter was fake so they asked david to return rs 128 crore they gave him the officer saidas david failed to repay the money sahayaraj lodged a complaint with district superintendent of police v badrinarayanan a few days ago the sp directed the dcb officials to take necessary actionsubsequently police registered a case against david under sections 406 420 and 468 of the indian penal code and arrested him police also seized his car he was produced before a judicial magistrate on tuesday evening and later remanded in judicial custody