Impersonator dupes devotees of Rs 13 lakh promising darshan at TTD, arrested

Hyderabad: A man who posed as an IAS officer and allegedly cheated devotees to the tune of about Rs 13 lakh by promising them tickets of special 'darshan' and various sevas/poojas at the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) has been arrested, police said today.

Accused H Venkata Ramana Rao, a resident of Jiyaguda here was arrested last evening. The accused had called up a local priest Narasimha Charyulu on January 18 claiming to be an IAS from Madhya Pradesh Cadre.

He then offered to provide tickets for special pujas/sevas of Lord Venkateswara at Tirumala Hills, claiming of having acquaintance with Executive Officer of TTD, they said.

Explaining Rao's modus operandi, police said he informed the priest that he has some tickets for sevas and in turn asked him to pay the fees/charges as payable for these sevas into his bank account.

Accordingly, the priest deposited around Rs 13 lakhs in Rao's account. However, the accused vanished with the money and did not send any tickets after which a complaint was lodged with Central Crime Station (CCS), police said.

"With a view to earn easy money, Rao hatched a plan to cheat gullible people in the name of providing special Vasthram Darshanam tickets by impersonating as an IAS officer," police said.