He was immediately taken to the District Superintendent of Police office at St.Thomas Mount for interrogation.

Announcing Pillai's return in the Assembly, Chief Minister M Karunanidhi quoted the herbal fuel inventor that he had escaped on his own from the clutches of the kidnappers. However, the CM was not sure whether Pillai had been really kidnapped or if the incident had been stage-managed.

Pillai is believed to have told the police that three persons in a white Maruti van had approached him on May 8 around 6.30 p.m. near his house. They identified themselves as police and asked him to come to the DGP office in Kamarajar Salai to sign some documents before proceeding to New Delhi as special security arrangements for his Delhi trip the same night.

Pillaisaid, he believed them and got into the van.

When the van took a deviation towards K.K.Nagar, he became suspicious and questioned them. Immediately the trio tied his hands and legs, blindfolded him and drove for nearly half an hour. They then took him to a house and demanded his fuel formula. When Pillai refused, they reportedly asked for Rs 10 lakh ransom. They later called his friends and personal secretary and demanded the ransom amount, Pillai had stated.

Today morning, when the trio realised that they would nothing from Pillai as he had also pleaded his inability to give the money, they dropped him by the van near a bridge at Perungulathur. He immediately began walking on the GST Road when a police inspector on duty saw him around 11 a.m. and took him away for questioning.

However, police seem to be viewing the whole matter with suspicion. They claimed that the kidnappers would not have relented so soon without getting any ransom money if at all the kidnap had taken place. But as Pillai wassponsored by several companies for manufacturing herbal fuel, police are verifying whether any motive could have fuelled the kidnap. Police are also checking whether Pillai himself stage-managed the kidnap drama for various reasons. The police have planned to do a mock-kidnap to cross check his statements.

Door-to-door checks were also done by the police at Tambaram, Chromepet, Alwar Thiru Nagar and Poonamallee areas.