Saravanan willing to meet scam victims

PETALING JAYA: Deputy Federal Territories and Urban Well-being Minister M Saravanan has opened his door to hear the grouses of those who fell victim to a housing scam, in which he was previously implicated in.

“Can… can… they can come and meet me in my office if they want to. Whatever I can do, I will do to help. Provided that they feed me with the proper information, we will find ways on how to trace this conman),” the MIC vice-president told FMT recently.

Last month, several victims of the PPR scam complained to FMT about the lack of concrete action from the authorities to resolve the case, which had dragged on since last year when they first lodged police complaints.

The victims had said that they wanted to meet Saravanan to see if he could help them.

Responding to Saravanan’s offer, one of the victims, 26-year-old financial adviser Markus Yap Kuang Hui (photo), said he was delighted to hear about Saravanan’s willingness to meet them.

“Of course we will try to go see him. There has been no other developments for so long.

“We want to ask him if he would he assist us to either get back some of the money or help us still obtain the houses?

Another “investor” Peter Lai said:”That’s great news, we must meet him as soon as possible.”

The alleged fraud involved the “sale” of PPR (Projek Perumahan Rakyat) low-cost flats on behalf of Kuala Lumpur City Hall through an agent named M Vagindraj @ Christopher Raj Mohan.

FMT broke the news last October. Forty-one people were allegedly cheated of RM357,000 in total.

In his police report then, Vagindraj, who was an insurance manager, alleged that a man claiming to be deputy minister Saravanan had corresponded with him via Facebook, asking him to act as an agent in the sale of the flats.

Vagindraj said he collected RM357,000 from potential buyers but realised that he had been swindled when “Saravanan” and his “proxies” cut off all communication with him. The buyers never received their houses.

However, in a recent twist, it was revealed that Vagindraj had apparently gone missing, with some of the victims suspecting that he had absconded with a portion of the money supposed to have been channeled to “Saravanan.”

Saravanan, who is also MIC vice-president, has vehemently denied the accusations against him.

In defending himself, the deputy minister had said that he had lodged a police report in September 2010 about someone impersonating him on Facebook and trying to use his name to dupe unsuspecting people.

He later also cautioned the public against individuals claiming to be agents in the sale of PPR houses.