Rachakonda police on the lookout for con man duping truck sellers on OLX

HYDERABAD: The Rachakonda police have formed three special teams to nab a notorious con man who traps people looking to sell their vehicles on online website OLX.

The accused, Srinivas Kadiyala, identifies his victims who post ads on the website to sell their vehicles, particularly heavy-duty trucks. The Rachakonda police recently nabbed his associates for questioning, but Srinivas remains at large, according to police sources.

Most of the victims are encumbered by loans, and the con man posing as a financier, then convinces them that he will take over the loans. He then executes an agreement to take over the victims' vehicle loans and offers them a token advance of between Rs 75,000 and Rs 1 lakh, as well as post-dated cheques. A

ccording to a police officer, when the victim is persuaded and signs the agreement, the conman flees with the vehicle and the documents. The accused then deftly removes the GPS tracking system from the heavy vehicles, switches the number plate from Telangana state registration to AP registration, and puts fake numbers.

The conman duped several loan-burdened people who put ads online to sell their heavy vehicles. According to police sources, the accused rented 20 HMVs worth Rs 10 crore for quarry operations in the AP and TS borders. "The serial offender is clever. We twice attempted to catch him by placing a tipper (HMV) for sale on OLX and waiting with our team to arrest him, but he appears to be intelligent, as he sent someone who does not even know the accused's details,” a police officer said.

The Rachakonda police claimed to have located the accused's apartment in Poranki, Krishna district, Andhra Pradesh, but found that he had lately relocated. The city police are likely to work with the Krishna district police to apprehend him, and the accused is suspected of committing similar crimes in five Telangana districts, including Mancherial. The police are also tracking him through his bank account in Poranki rural Krishna district, which is still functioning.