Cybercriminal nabbed for cheating Covid victims’ kin

Ananthapur: In a major breakthrough, Kadapa police on Wednesday identified an interstate cybercrime gang cheating money from families of Covid victims in the name of Jagananna Bima and arrested one person.

YSR district superintendent of police Anbu Rajan said the arrested person Meenuga Venkatesh of Miduthur village in Khajipet mandal of YSR district, along with other members of the gang, had been promising to release money to families of Covid victims for past two months under YSR Bima.

For example, Beeram Ramana Reddy, Nirmala and M.V. Sunitha of Kadapa city; S. Nagaveni of Khajipet; Vighneshwari and Vijaya Kumari of Pendlimarri; Krishna Chaitanya of Brahmamgari Mattam; Krishna Chaitanya of Proddutur; Jinka Haritha and P. Adlakshmi of Badvel received phone calls from the gang seeking details of family members for payment of insurance reimbursement to them.

On one or other pretext, the gang collected OTPs from them and withdrew money from their bank accounts.

The SP said the victims approached the cybercrime wing, which discovered that the gang had been operating from several parts of the region. The cyber wing took up investigations and arrested Meenuga Venkatesh, who revealed that the racket was being run through a call centre in Delhi.

Following this, authorities froze ₹7,34,964 in nine bank accounts operated through various UPI IDs.