The Madras High Court has directed the Greater Chennai Commissioner of Police to conduct an inquiry regarding K.T.R. Raja Karuppan Chetty alias Karuppiah, an employee of noted educationist and philanthropist Meena Muthiah who passed away in Ooty on May 2, 2026, having amassed ₹800 crore belonging to the Chettinad family.
Justice Mohammed Shaffiq directed the Commissioner of Police to take appropriate action on the basis of a complaint which accused Mr. Chetty of having misappropriated the huge sum of money by misusing his proximity with Meena Muthiah during her lifetime and by keeping her son M.A.M.M. Annamalai at a distance.
The judge made it clear the police inquiry must conclude at the earliest, since the deceased was the secretary of Kumara Rajah Muthiah School of Traditional Arts & Crafts, a registered society which runs Chettinad Vidyashram school in Chennai and “thus the interests of students are also at stake.”
The orders were passed on a writ petition filed by V. Palaniappan, a member of the registered society. Representing him, Senior counsel J. Ravindran told the court that the petitioner had lodged a nine-page complaint with the Commissioner on May 26, 2026 levelling charges of criminal conspiracy, forgery, cheating, criminal breach of trust, fabrication of records and so on against Mr. Chetty.
According to the complainant, Mr. Chetty had joined the Chettinad household in a modest domestic capacity. Over time, by exploiting his closeness to Meena Muthiah, he entrenched himself within the household’s administrative structure and capitalised on internal family dynamics to assume absolute control over communications, administration, and access to family members.
“Once she fell prey to his ill-motive, he had secured all her wealth. Thereafter, when she identified his ulterior motive and started digging up the secret, he cleverly planned a trip to Ooty, without even informing any of her relatives, including her son, that too, when she was weak and her activity was restricted due to her advanced age, deliberately putting her life at risk,” the complaint read.
Accusing Mr. Chetty of having inducted his family members in the trusts instituted by the Chettinad family and accumulating wealth in their names too, the complainant said, a detailed investigation into the entire issue would reveal how he had siphoned off the society funds and compromised the charitable objectives of the Chettinad family.
Mr. Palaniappan also accused Mr. Chetty of not having handed over the accounts and administrative control of the registered society to industrialist P. Vijayakumar Reddy who had been appointed as its interim administrator by the High Court last month. He said, Mr. Chetty was continuing to withdraw funds from the society’s bank accounts and thereby causing severe administrative hindrance.
Published – June 01, 2026 07:36 pm IST
