HYDERABAD: The CCS police has arrested six more persons, including the kingpin Chanduri Venkata Koti Sai Kumar, in connection with the multi-crore Telugu Akademi Fixed Deposits (FD) fraud on Wednesday. The police officials, who had arrested four individuals earlier, said that they suspect the involvement of up to nine more persons in the scam.
The arrested were identified as Segoori Ramesh alias Ravi, the administrative officer-in-charge of accounts, M. Sadhana, branch manager of Canara bank, Chandanagar, Chunduri Venkata Koti Sai Kumar (49), real estate agent, Nanduri Venkata Raman (50), Venkateshwar Rao alias Dr. Venkat alias Rajesh (43), a self-proclaimed RMP doctor and a real estate agent from Khammam district, and Somashekar alias Raj Kumar (35), also a real estate agent.
“Sai Kumar, the mastermind of the fraud, was previously involved in three cases, including the Minority Welfare Society withdrawal of FDRs, the AP Housing Board scam of nearly Rs six crore in 2015 and Rs 25 crore FDR fraud of Northern Coalfields in Chennai,” said police commissioner of Hyderabad, Anjani Kumar.
Officials also said that since December 2020, the accused had swindled Rs 64.50 crore of the Akademi’s 43 FDs in Karwan and Santosh Nagar branches of Union Bank of India and Canara Bank’s Chandanagar branch. The credit society got a commission of nearly Rs six crore for parking the Akademi’s money, and a majority of the share was taken by Sai Kumar, Ramesh and others.
“Venkat Raman was also a co-accused in the 2012 AP Minority Welfare Society in FDR case. Sai Kumar was in debt due to certain investments in real estate. He got in contact with Ramesh, accounts officer of Telugu Acakemi and whenever a place required to create a fixed deposit, Sai Kumar would be contacted through the agent and in turn Kumar would send Dr. Venkat or Somashekar to collect the cheque from Ramesh. Subsequently, Venkat Ramana and Sai, with the help of their associates, would create fake FDRs and fake request letters. The fake request letters would be sent to the bank with the different amount and time period for the fixed deposits. The fake FDRs would be printed and sent back to the Akademi,” explained the official.
Shaik Mastanvali of UBI and Sadhana of Canara Bank – would inform UTR numbers of FDRs to Venkat Raman and his associates who would use it on the fake FDRs. Withdrawals would be done in favour of A.P. Mercantile Co-operative Credit Society where the society would withdraw the amount in cash.
“The fake account of Telugu Akademi in A.P. Mercantile Co-operative Society was created with the conveyance of managing director Satyanarayana using fake ID proofs with Somashekar posing as director of Telugu Akademi,” added Avinash Mohanty, Joint CP of CCS.
“They withdrew the money after transferring it to the Akademi’s fake account in AP Mercantile Co-Operative Credit Society from Agrasen Co-Operative Urban Bank Limited.,” he said.
