Police Arrest Begging Racketeers with Property Worth Rs 80 lakh

Hyderabad: In a drive against the organised begging racket that is rampant in the city, sleuths from south east zone task force and Malakpet police arrested 10 organisers and agents, who were luring people for the past three years. Two of them purchased property worth Rs 80 lakh.

The prime accused Kethavath Ravi and Kethavath Mangu are brothers and collection agents, who were cheating people collecting money in the name of charity under the banner ‘Amma Cheyutha Foundation’, police said. From the amount so raised, they purchased land worth Rs 80 lakh in different places in the twin cities, including Nadergul, Badangpet and Turkayamjal, police said,

The prime accused Kethavath Ravi and his brother Kethavath Mangu In 2020 they approached another accused Gaddi Ganesh, founder of the foundation which has an office behind Kamineni hospital in Mansurabad, L.B. Nagar.

The three went into organised begging in the name  of Amma Cheyutha Foundation stating that they took care of disabled persons, CH. Rupesh, DCP (SZ) said at a press conference here on Sunday.

Ganesh provided the other nine accused collection boxes, ID cards and visiting cards and instructed them to collect money in the name of charity, Rupesh said. They hired unemployed women, students and homemakers on a percentage basis.

Each had to stand at select traffic signals and they were picked up by 9 pm. Upon counting the day’s collection, 35 percent of the total amount was transferred to the hired women. The brothers simultaneously cheated Ganesh.

The others who were arrested included Ramavath Anusha,  Nenavath Sailaja, Banavath Sangeetha, Ramavath Yellamma, Kethavath Chili, Kethavath Saroja and Sabavath Sunitha. All these beggars are natives of Nalgonda districts, the DCP said.

Police seized property worth Rs 1,38,262, registration deeds, two passengers autos, and Rs 1.22 lakh net cash.

Police registered a case of cheating and extortion and produced them before the court.