Hyderabad: Two more persons were arrested on Sunday September 22 for misappropriation of money from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund (CMRF) cheque worth Rs 8.71 crore in Hyderabad.
The cheque was stolen from the office of a former minster following the 2023 Telangana Assembly elections. The accused were identified as Pagadala Srinivasa Rao and Yasa Venkaeshwarulu.
On reliable information, detective inspector Satyanarayana along with staff arrested the accused and produced them before a court for judicial remand, the Jubilee Hills police said. Investigation is in progress to identify more persons involved in the offences.
On September 18, seven people were arrested in connection with the scam. The accused were identified as Potla Ravi, 46, Janagama Nagaraju, 40, Mateti Bhasker, 33, Dharmaram Raju, 50, Kampalli Santhosh, 35, Chityala Laxmi, 65 and Asampelli Laxmi. All of them are natives of Godavarikhani village in Pedapally district.
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According to the police, these individuals acted as fake beneficiaries and fraudulently got the CMRF cheques deposited in their personal accounts and withdrew the money. They have been accused of cheating the government and depriving genuine victims/beneficiaries.
A case has been registered under sections 409, 417, 419, 467, and 120(B) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 66(C) of the Information Technology Act.
4 arrested on July 15
On July 15, the police arrested four individuals in relation to this case, who have been remanded to judicial custody.
The prime accused, Jogula Naresh Kumar, 42, had misused his access to the CMRF cheques while working at the minister’s office and unlawfully took possession of 230 sanctioned but undistributed cheques.
He had identified 19 cheques which had been issued but not followed up and deposited them into the SBI Branch at Jubilee Hills Road No 5 using forged details.
The other four that were previously arrested include Balagoni Venkatesh, 37, Korlapati Vamshi, 24 and Pulipaka Omkar, 34.
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