CCTV helps cops to nab conman

Hyderabad: CCTV cameras helped the police to track a farmer turned conman. The accused, Chinna Reddy, used to target farmers and employees of gold merchants. He used to make them drink and then steal their money and jewellery, police said. Police arrested Chinna Reddy and recovered 2.71 kg gold jewellery from him.

Police said that Abdullapuram Chinna Reddy, 52, was a farmer till he went to Dubai in 2001. After returning in 2004 he became a visa consultant and started cheating fellow farmers in Nandipet. He was arrested and freed on bail. After that he started committing thefts. “Dressed like a polished person he used to befriend farmers at agricultural market yards and take them for a drink. When they are drunk he mixes cigarette ash in the last peg and make them drink it. After they become unconscious he used to flee with their bag,” said Hyderabad police commissioner M. Mahender Reddy, adding that he followed the same modus operandi with employees of jewellery merchants. “To convince the victims that he is rich he carried a bag filled with soap pieces wrapped in paper. The victims mistake them for currency bundles,” the commissioner added.

Police said Chinna Reddy trapped Prashanth, the driver of Warangal jeweller B. Sampath Kumar a week ago. After purchasing 2.4 kg gold Prashanth was about to take a train to Warangal from Secunderabad. Reddy took him to a bar and made him drunk. When Prashanth woke up, the jewellery bag was missing. Using CCTV feeds police identified Reddy and nabbed him at Nizamabad on Friday.