Inter-state racket of fraudsters busted; four held

Four persons suspected to be members of an inter-state gang were arrested for allegedly attempting to withdraw Rs 3.92 crores from the accounts of a public sector petroleum unit here fraudulently, police said today. "The attempt to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 3.92 crores was prevented due to alertness of Vaidehinagar's SBI branch manager and four members of the white-collar criminal gang were arrested last night," Commissioner of Police (Rachakonda Commissionerate) Mahesh M Bhagwat said. Vaidehinagar's SBI branch manager B Ramgopal in his complaint lodged on September 19 stated that Nallapureddy Jalireddy, who opened a bank account in the name of Jeevan Jyothi Trust Chairman presented four cheques worth Rs 3.92 crores belonging to the public sector petroleum unit in the branch for withdrawing the amounts. However, on scrutinising the cheques, it was found that they were forged in the name of the chairman of the petroleum unit, the senior official said. A case was registered under charge of cheating and other relevant sections of the IPC. During the course of investigation, Jalireddy was first taken into custody and he confessed to police that Bodapati Venkata Nagaraju had handed over the four cheques through anothe rpersons named Balu and he presented the cheques at the Vaidehinagar branch of the bank. Subsequently, Bodapati Venkata Nagaraju was nabbed and based on his confession, police apprehended K Chiathanya and Singireddy Rama Krishna, the CP said. Further, Nagaraju confessed that the cheques have been handed over to him by Prasanth, who is absconding. Police said Prasanth was handed over the cheques by a person named Mishra from Lucknow, who is also absconding. "Efforts are continuing to apprehend Prasanth, Mishra and others," Bhagwat said. Police also seized nine cheque books of various banks, two passbooks and other documents.