Before Jho Low, another Msian was wanted by Interpol… and his crimes are way more dramatic

Recently, we did an article on how the PDRM is trying to get an Interpol Red Notice for fugitive businessman Jho Low. In case you don’t know what that is, basically speaking it’s like a worldwide wanted poster lah.

Anyway, during the research for that, we sifted through the list of wanted Malaysians and stumbled upon a pretty interesting guy. His story is a lot like one of those outrageous Kollywood movies, probably sans the physics-defying fighting scenes. We said ‘probably’, because his story is so insane we’re starting to wonder if it is possible to kill someone with a banana.

This guy managed to fool dozens of people, seemingly controlled the police, came back from the dead to hunt down and kill the father of the son-in-law he disapproved of, and pretty much had the authorities dancing in the palm of his hand. He goes by many names, but the one most used in Malaysian news is Michael Soosai.

And the first thing you should know about him is that…

 

Soosai was said to be a master of bamboozlement

Reports of Soosai in the media were scarce, but we know that he was wanted by Bukit Aman for forging checks back in 2001, and that he was married. In 2003, Soosai was said to have died of a heart attack, and a burned body (said to be his) was brought to Hospital Kuala Lumpur (HKL) by two scrap metal traders, where a former HKL attendant told a doctor that it was Soosai’s.

The doctor then issued a death certificate for Soosai, meaning that all former charges against him were dropped. Soosai’s wife collected a huge sum in life insurance, and with the burned body cremated and buried, we guess everybody just assumed that Soosai was no more. They kept assuming that until next year, after a Malaysian named N. Subramaniam and his wife went to India on an all-expense paid trip.

[Correction 6th September 2018: It appears that we have made a mistake. It wasn’t Subramaniam who eloped with Soosai’s daughter, but his son. We apologize deeply for any confusion caused.]

Upon arriving in Chennai airport, the couple got abducted and was separated for eight days, during which N. Subramaniam was murdered by having acid poured onto his private parts. Investigations on his death later revealed that Subramaniam once worked for Soosai, and he was angry at Subramaniam’s son for eloping with his daughter. The whole free trip was arranged by Soosai himself.

That was when the police realized that they have been duped: Soosai was still alive, and was somewhere in India. The people involved in faking his death was sought out and investigated, and after lengthy trials and appeals, the HKL attendant was found to be guilty and was subsequently punished.

But Soosai was still at large, and in 2005…

 

He created a website that exposed corrupt Malaysian police officers

Once the Malaysian police found out that Soosai was still alive, they alerted the Indian police as well as the Interpol, who proceeded to issue a Red Notice against him. However, Soosai’s exact whereabouts remained a mystery, so they arrested his elderly mother in Ipoh for more information. It was believed that this event caused Soosai to retaliate against the Malaysian police.

Soosai allegedly sent one of his men disguised as an international reporter to the Malaysian police, and this man bribed a police officer to ‘rent’ him some classified documents. Meanwhile, in India, Soosai took on the name of ‘Dr N. Mahadevan‘, partnered up with another man named ‘Mr William‘, and put out an ad in the local papers looking for a personal assistant.

A man named Milan Kumar Pandey was hired, and Soosai told him that he and Mr William were movie-makers, that they’re doing a scary crime movie and that they need a website to promote it. For that, Pandey hired a freelancer to build and register the website. ‘michaelsoosai.org’ went live, but instead of a trailer, it showcased numerous links between Soosai and several named Malaysian police officers, as well as scans of the ‘rented’ documents from earlier as proof.

You can read more on what’s on that website here, but basically it tells of how Soosai was respected by some Malaysian police officers (to the point of them addressing him as ‘sir’), and was able, among other things, to delay prosecutions, free prisoners, lessen charges, or even drop them entirely, all for a fee.

“No Underworld Dons can grow without the support of the Enforcement Agencies such as the Police Department. It is corrupt Police officials who encourage underworld activities to enrich themselves and when things get out of hand, they wash their hands using their position,” – Excerpt from the website, accessed through the Wayback Machine.

While the title of the website had been “Michael Soosai – A soul resting in peace” (suggesting that he maintained his dead status), the contact e-mail found on the website was for a Dr N Mahadevan, who was confirmed to be Soosai by Pandey after seeing a picture of him. Except, well, Soosai had a mustache when Pandey met him.

Regardless of the mustache, Soosai’s website might not have much of an impact (he was known for fraud after all)… except that it checks out with what a royal commission had found after more than a year of investigations. The allegations were to be investigated, and barring him challenging the former IGP Tan Sri Musa Hassan to catch him if he can… that’s about the last piece of news we’ve found about him in Malaysia.

Oh, and btw, he never paid Pandey.

 

He got into trouble with the Indian police, and is probably going through a legal battle now

Probably thanks to Soosai’s use of multiple names, it took a while for the Tamil Nadu police to catch up on his antics. An Indian-based paper had mentioned that he was at times Michael Rajah of Euro Credit Corporation, other times Dr Rajasingham, author of multiple economic books and economic adviser to the Nepal government, and sometimes Dr Sivaraj, deputy chairman of several Singapore-based companies. Other names he had taken include Rajshekar, Drahmadevan and Michael Raj, but the name he got famous with was Karunairaj, son of Ganamuthu.

Shortly after disposing of his former driver in 2004, Soosai married a woman named Jayanthi (also went by several names, including Machigandhi and Rajeswari) and fathered three children. He proceeded to commit several frauds, but the one that brought his downfall was a career fraud, where he would tell job seekers to come to a job interview he advertised in the papers wearing valuables, which he and his wife would then loot.

This particular stunt led to their arrest in 2010 in Chennai, where the police recovered valuables worth roughly RM174,000 from them. We’re not sure what happened to them next, but based on Jayanthi’s testimony, in August 2011 the Soosai family was captured in their hotel room by a team of police officers, and they were taken away to see the Commissioner of Police personally. After interrogations, Soosai was arrested for several crimes and was placed at the Puzhal Central Prison.

He was later granted bail and released in September, but as soon as he stepped out of the prison gates a jeep belonging to the police took him away again, right in front of his waiting wife and children. He was detained for the next five years in a Special Camp for foreigners. During that time, Soosai and his wife tried to challenge the arrest in court, with Soosai claiming that it had something to do with the Commissioner wanting to shut him up for having proof of dealings between top Indian police officials and the Indian Drug Mafia.

After a special order from the Tamil Nadu government, he was later released from the camp sometime in April 2015. However, he still faced charges for his past crimes. This time, he came up with another origin story, which involved him studying law in England and settling in Malaysia, being a legal advisor to a Singaporean businessman. This businessman apparently had a misunderstanding with a senior police officer in Chennai over a diamond business, so to take revenge on the businessman, Soosai was slapped with these charges.

To that end, Soosai had also claimed that his original name is Karunairaj, son of Ganamuthu, that he is a native of the city of Kancheepuram, and that the police had fabricated his nick names, his Malaysian origins and his crimes of cheating and murder in Tamil Nadu. After 2015, we can’t find any more news of Soosai, but a blog post that criticized corrupt Indian judges has a comment by someone using one of his aliases (Karunairaj Gnanamuthu), and it would seem that he started a blog himself that detailed his court case, titled ‘Flames of Injustice‘, with the last post being on January 2016.

However, we can’t verify if he is the one behind it, so we guess that’s where his online trail ended. With all that said and done…

 

Soosai isn’t the only wanted criminal still at large

Soosai’s story is so outlandish to the point that we had trouble figuring out what’s true and what’s not, but he is but one of the 14 publicly available records of Malaysians with a Red Notice, and some of their stories are just as outlandish.

Rohaniza Aladib, the only Malay woman on the list, conned hundreds of VIPs and artistes into investing in an international tobacco company, and disappeared along with more than RM400 million. Jennifer Tay convinced/tricked five people into signing loan applications for RM100 million each, and presumably vanished while the victims get caught in a court battle.

There’s also the story of Tan Yoke Chung, former chairman of the Hokkien Association who on the surface supported and consoled the family of a boy who got heinously tortured and murdered by a Datuk, but then kantoi for asking for a bribe from the Datuk to ‘settle’ the case. Nyo Ah Hai, once said to be responsible for 80% of the thefts of pickup trucks and MPVs in Malaysia in the 2000s, and having stolen 172 cars over 6 years, was said to have been caught in 2004, but his Red Notice is still up on Interpol’s website.

The stories of these people may turn out to be quite interesting, so maybe one day we’ll do a feature on one of them as well.