Ex-cricketer jailed for fraud

Hyderabad: The Hyderabad cyber crime police on Saturday arrested a former Ranji cricket player for cheating. The player, B. Nagaraju, who once represented Andhra in Ranji tournaments.

According to police, the former cricketer impersonated Thirupathi Reddy, personal assistant of municipal administration minister K.T. Rama Rao, and called Prime India, a real estate company operating from Old City. He told the company that a person named Nagaraju, Ranji player, would approach them and they should sponsor him as he is poor. Believing the same, the company transferred Rs 3.3 lakh to Nagaraju’s account and also gave him Prime India kits and logos.

However, Nagaraju attempted the same trick with Prime India once again. This time, company officials got suspicious and googled his name. They found that he had been arrested in various cheating cases earlier. The company officials then lodged a complaint.

“Through analysis of call data records, we traced him to Andhra Pradesh. We took Nagaraju into custody from Srikakulam district, brought him to the city, and have produced him before the court for judicial custody,” said Mr N. Mohan Rao, who heads the social media hacking unit in Hyderabad cyber crime department.

The accused played Ranji Trophy matches in 2014 representing the Andhra team, for the central zone in 2013 and for south zone in 2011.

In one of the cases, Nagaraju impersonated M.S.K. Prasad, chief selector of the Indian cricket team until recently, over phone and collected Rs 3.88 lakh from Ramakrishna Housing Private Limited, according to the police.

A number of cases have been booked against him in Vizag, Guntur, and Cyberabad. “We are seeking his custody to get more details about victims he has cheated,” Mr Rao added.