Maria Susairaj in Rs 2.11 crore Haj fraud case - Kannada starlet Maria Susairaj, 35, has been accused of conning Haj pilgrims who had booked tickets from her agency through a Vadodara travel firm.

She was arrested based on the complaint filed by a Vadodara-based travel agency La-Raib Tours. Susairaj had allegedly promised the agency air tickets for 1,200 Haj pilgrims through her Mumbai firm. However, she was unsuccessful in producing the tickets, the complaint stated.

Meanwhile, Susairaj has claimed that she is being victimised for helping her friend. Speaking to Mirror, the starlet said the main accused in the case, Paromita Chakraborty, was a friend she was meeting after a long time. She said, "Since I had not seen Vadodara before, I decided to accompany her to a business trip there last year," alleging that a former television journalist named Iqbal had threatened her lawyer in Ahmedabad, when she went there to get the matter settled.

Maria met Paromita during her stay at the Byculla Jail.

Zaid Ashfaq, owner of La-Raib Tours and Travels located in Panigate area of Vadodara filed a complaint under IPC Sections 406, 420, 467, 468, 120B, and 114 on June 6, 2015. Ashfaq stated that he had been tricked of an amount of Rs 2.11 crore by the two women.

On June 6, Susairaj and others approached the Gujarat High Court seeking to quash the FIR claims. Justice Abhilasha Kumari, who heard their plea and rejected it, ordered the DCB not to arrest the actress during investigation. However, Susairaj allegedly approached the Vadodara Sessions Court in September demanding an anticipatory bail that was rejected. After which she moved to the HC. She last approached the HC on Wednesday in the court of Justice JB Pardiwala who overruled her plea for anticipatory bail.

Maria, who was jailed for three years till 2011 during the trial of Neeraj Grover murder case, is a resident of Banimantap, Hanumantnagar in Mysuru.