Cops Book IAS Officer For Duping NRI Of Rs 4.3 Crore
Retired IAS officer Dayachari Ponnekanti booked for duping US-based NRI of ₹4.3 crore with fake business deals and forged documents.
Hyderabad: The Hyderabad Central Crime Station (CCS) police have registered criminal cases against retired IAS officer Dayachari Ponnekanti for allegedly duping a US-based IT professional to the tune of Rs 4.3 crore on pretext of setting up business in Telangana.
According to police, Kommineni Kalyana, 59, a resident of Union Avenue, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, US, and temporarily present in Hyderabad, lodged a complaint with the CCS police alleging that Ponnekanti was introduced to him by their common contacts at Guntur while Ponnekanti was working in the Tobacco Board, Guntur District.
"In February 2015, Ponnekanti approached me in the US and requested me to participate in business activities along with him, including the establishment of a hospital named “Kugler” in Guntur, and sought investments. In March 2015, Ponnekanti approached me regarding a sand supply contract with a Singapore company and a long-term LPG supply contract with Indian Oil Corporation, presenting various forged and fake documents and proposals related to these ventures," the complainant said.
The complainant added that the representations of Ponnekanti, a former civil servant in Andhra Pradesh, appeared credible, and he invested $5,00,000 or approximately Rs 4.3 crore. This amount was sent via wire transfers from the complainant’s Bank of America account to APIND Financial Services Private Limited, a company incorporated in India with its office address at Prashasan Nagar, Road No.72, Jubilee Hills.
“It was later discovered that this address is actually the residential property of Ponnekanti himself. The wire transfer was made on March 16, 2015. Since the transfer of the amount, Ponnekanti avoided communications on several occasions,” the NRI alleged in his complaint.
In order to verify the status of the business activities and the firms operated by Ponnekanti, the complainant visited India and discovered that Ponnekanti was collecting large sums of money from various individuals under the pretense of investments and deposits, luring them with false promises and projections of substantial profits.
Upon further verification, it was revealed that Ponnekanti had diverted the amount collected from the complainant toward acquiring multiple immovable properties in Guntur and other locations, as evidenced by declarations found in his income-tax documents. Upon knowing it, Kalyanaa approached the Indian Oil Corporation, a government of India entity, regarding the LPG contract, which had been portrayed by retired IAS officer Ponnekanti as a lucrative business opportunity," the CCS police said.
During the initial inquiry, the authorised officers of the IOCL confirmed that Ponnekanti had issued a fake purchase order in the name of IOCL, misleading the complainant and fraudulently extracting the investment of $500,000.
The CCS police registered cases against the retired IAS officer Ponnekanti and his firm APIND Financial Services Private Limited for cheating the NRI by collecting amounts.
