HC directs employee teacher Meena Muthiah to probe ₹800 crore of Chettinad family’s money

The Madras High Court ordered the Greater Chennai Police Commissioner to conduct an inquiry into KTR Raja Karuppan Chetty alias Karuppiah, an employee of noted educationist and philanthropist Meena Muthiah, who died in Ooty on 2 May 2026 after collecting ₹800 belonging to a Chettinad family.

Justice Mohammed Shaffiq ordered the Commissioner of Police to take appropriate action based on the complaint which accused Mr Chetty of misappropriating a huge sum of money by abusing his closeness with Meena Muthiah during her lifetime and keeping her son MAMM Annamalai at a distance.

The judge made it clear that the police investigation must end as soon as possible as the deceased was the secretary of the Kumara Rajah Muthiah School of Traditional Arts & Crafts, a registered society that runs the Chettinad Vidyashram School in Chennai and “so the interests of the students are also at stake”.

The orders were passed on a written request filed by a member of the registered society, V. Palaniappan. Senior counsel J. Ravindran, appearing for him, told the court that the petitioner filed a nine-page complaint with the commissioner on May 26, 2026, alleging criminal conspiracy, forgery, cheating, breach of trust, fabrication of records and so on against Mr. Chetty.

According to the complainant, Mr. Chetty joined the Chettinad household in a humble domestic capacity. Over time, by using his proximity to Meena Muthiah, he entrenched himself in the administrative structure of the household and used internal family dynamics to take absolute control over communications, administration and access to family members.

“Once she fell victim to his evil motive, he secured all her wealth. When she then identified his ulterior motive and began to search for the secret, he cleverly planned to travel to Ooty without informing any of her relatives, including her son, that when she was weak and her activities were limited due to old age, he deliberately threatened her life in a complaint.”

When the complainant accused Mr. Chetty of putting his family members in the trusts set up by the Chettinad family and accumulating assets in their names as well, a detailed investigation of the whole issue would reveal how he siphoned off the company’s funds and compromised the Chettinad family’s charitable goals.

Mr. Palaniappan also accused Mr. Chetty of not handing over the accounts and administrative control of the registered company to industrialist P. Vijayakumar Reddy, who was appointed its interim administrator by the Supreme Court last month. He said Mr. Chetty continued to withdraw funds from the company’s bank accounts, thereby causing serious administrative hurdles.

Published – 01 Jun 2026 19:36 IST