Hyderabad: Rachakonda cyber crime police arrested one Y. Sreelatha, 33, of Hoskote, Bengaluru, for posing as the chief operations manager of a Telugu TV channel and cheating people by collecting money in exchange for roles in TV serials.
Police said Sreelatha created a fake Facebook account in the name of “Sridevi Tummala” and claimed she was ‘producer director’ at a local TV channel. She used this to cheat people.
Police said Sreelatha admitted that she regularly watched Telugu serials and was impressed by artists like Nishama, Sirisha and Karuna. In June last year, while she was watching a TV serial, she came across the name of Sridevi Tummala who was credited as being the programme producer.
Sreelatha opened a Facebook account in the same name and began interacting with aspirants who approached her on social media wanting to become TV and movie artistes. She allegedly cheated people by collecting money and promising them of roles.
It is alleged that she lured an artist, Vamshi, by promising him a lead role in TV serials and demanded Rs 50,000. The money was deposited in her Indian Bank account. She also allegedly lured Manikonda resident Kranthi Kumar and took Rs 6 lakh from him.
Based on the complainant filed by the TV channel’s chief operations manager B.V.R. Murthy, a case was registered under IPC Sections 419, 420 and Sec. 66 (C) and (D) of IT Act on June 11. During investigation it was found that Sreelatha had been arrested in 2017 under the IT Act for a matrimonial fraud
In this regard, the police has instructed netizens not to accept friend requests of strangers and not to share any personal information to others though Facebook or any other social media platforms and to beware of such fraudsters.
