Hyderabad: Hyderabad East Zone Police on Friday detected a HMDA funds diversion racket and arrested a three member gang, including an HMDA employee and two others.
The trio cheated HMDA to the tune of Rs 5.87 crore. The accused were identified as L. Shankar, Y. Vijaya Mohan Krishna and Raju Ahmed.
DCP East Zone Dr V. Ravinder said that the prime accused L. Shankar 39, worked as a field officer at Sai Security Services, an outsourcing agency of HMDA. In 2008, he tampered with the first cheque of the company, changing the figures and words.
“He made 1 to 7 and 1 to 14, altered the amount written in words and deposited the forged cheque in a fake account created in the name of Sai Security services at Allahabad bank,” the DCP said. Later he made his associate Raju Ahmed and opened fake accounts in various banks to deposit forged cheques in the accounts.
Accounts officer Vijay Mohan Krishna noticed the fraud but colluded with the fraudsters. He was paid around Rs 85 lakh as his share. From 2008-09 to 2015-16, Shankar’s gang cheated HMDA to the tune of Rs 5.87 crores.
Police recovered Rs 5.02 crore, procured using the misappropriated funds, including Rs 9.75 lakh cash, gold jewellery worth about Rs 8 lakh, land documents worth around Rs 3.73 crore, cars, insurance certificates and around 233.5 grams silver articles from Shankar and Rs 20.79 lakh cash and two residential plots worth Rs 25 lakh from HMDA employee Y Vijaya Mohan Krishna.
