Hyderabad: Hyderabad police arrested Arvind Alishetty, a BRS leader who is active on social media, on charges of duping a businessman, Bollineni Dhanush Srinivas, of Rs 4 crore after promising to get him a contract for the state government’s mid-day meals scheme.
Arvind had supplied to the complainant with forged government order (GO) copies which stated that the contract was allocated to him, police said.
The complaint was lodged in December last, following which an inquiry was taken up. The GO copies given to the complainant were sent to the Department of School Education for verification, said A.V. Ranganath, joint commissioner of police, crimes, and SIT.
“The department said that it had not issued GOs. Accordingly, a case has been registered and the accused has been arrested and remanded to judicial custody,” Ranganath said.
Arvind had earlier blocked the Durgam Cheruvu Cable bridge to make a video on the occasion of BRS working president K.T. Rama Rao’s birthday. “Representing youth & social media activities Party !!! An ardent follower of Sri @ktrbrs garu !!! (sic)” Read his bio on X.
The complainant, Srinivas, came into contact with Alishetty through his brother Bollineni Karthik, when the BRS leader visited the complainant's residence in December 2021.
At that time, Srinivas alleged, Arvind offered him business opportunities for the supply of agro commodities to the mid-day meals scheme and presented fake documents to establish his credentials. Arvind insisted that all the payments be made to him, Srinivas said.
When there was no progress and the documents turned out to be forged, Srinivas requested a meeting with the officials. This also did not materialise. Arvind refused to return the amount, and Srinivas went to the police.
