TIRUPATI: Tirupati MP Gurumurthy on Friday lodged a complaint with the Urban Police against an imposter who tried to dupe him by promising a central government grant of Rs 5 crore to a set of people in Tirupati parliament constituency.
He posed himself as a staffer at the chief minister’s office and called up the MP to say the central government has sanctioned a Rs 5 crore grant through the Khadi & Village Industries commission.
He asked the MP to select 20 beneficiaries and send their names along with a payment of 1.25 lakh for each beneficiary as against challan charges to a bank account.
Confirming the development with Deccan Chronicle, Gurumurthy said the person identified himself as Dr. Abhishek. “He called me this morning and said the money was ready for disbursal. He said each beneficiary would get Rs 25 lakh.”
He asked the MP to shortlist the 20 beneficiaries and send their Aadhar card details along with a payment of Rs 1.25 lakh per beneficiary. He wanted the MP to transfer Rs 1.25 lakh for each beneficiary to a bank account and shared the details thereof.
Suspecting that something was wrong, the MP got matters verified at CMO, which in turn confirmed no one by name Abhishek was working there. “I realised this was a scam call and an attempt to dupe people,” the MP said.
Gurumurthy then got in touch with Tirupati SP Appala Naidu. The MP shared the mobile numbers and the bank account details of the caller to the police.
