‘Herbal fuel’ inventor jailed for three years

A Chennai court last week sentenced Ramar Pillai, the self-proclaimed inventor of herbal fuel in the late 1990s, to three years in jail for defrauding people with his bogus products.Four of his associates – R Venudevi, S Chinnasamy, R Rajasegaran and S K Bharat - were also given similar punishment. The court said that Ramar Pillai had mixed petroleum products and marketed it as Ramar Petrol and Ramar Tamildevi Mooligai Eriporul as if it was extracted from herbs. Ramar had sold the ‘bio-fuel’ throughout Tamil Nadu and earned over Rs20mn by cheating the public. He was a school dropout from Rajapalayam in southern Virudhunagar district whose fraud came to light when his products were tested by foreign agencies.Man arrested over luxury prize car claim Police arrested Mohamed Rafiq, 45, for cheating several motels by luring them into a competition where the prize was a luxury Audi car. Rafiq was arrested from his hometown Karur, about 300km from Chennai. Police took action based on a complaint from a Karur-based motel owner Praveen Kumar, who said Rafiq called him and claimed his motel had won an Audi car for best hospitality. He asked Praveen to deposit Rs65,000 into a private bank account as part of his income status to claim the prize. A gullible Praveen paid the cash on May 26 but could not contact Rafiq after that. Police found that Rafiq had played the same trick at motels and lodges in Coimbatore, Chennai, Vellankani and Madurai.AIADMK man hacked to deathShamugham, 40, a councillor of the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam party was murdered by unknown persons at Tiruttani in Tiruvallur in suburban Chennai last week.Shamugham had gone for an early morning walk at his water bottling plant in Indira Nagar before getting into his car. Some men suddenly intercepted him, threw chilli powder into his eyes and hacked him to death before escaping. As it was early hours, the place was deserted and a man passing by found Shanmugham’s body and informed police. In another incident, Thangaraj, 49, an ex-councillor was killed by eight men at Thirumazhisai in suburban Chennai on October 14.Police suspect business rivalry behind the murders.Family donates doctor’s organsIn a humane act, the family of a leading doctor donated his organs in Chennai last week.G R Ratnavel, 50, who was the chief dermatologist and cosmetologist at Chennai’s Stanley Medical College Hospital, went into coma after a freak fall while climbing the rock temple at Tiruchi.He was declared brain dead at Apollo Hospitals with intra cranial bleeding. Ratnavel developed the dermatology department and treated many people with reconstructive surgeries.He also wrote medical books.Magician-soldier enters record booksA soldier of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) from southern Kanyakumari district has entered the Guinness Book of World Records as part of a national group for continuously performing magic tricks for six hours.B Ajithkumar, 41, participated with 160 magicians to break the previous record of 130 magicians from Italy. He has been practising magic for nearly two decades.