Visakhapatnam: Officials who were tra-pped while taking bribes by the Anti-Corruption Bureau in the two Telugu states were duped by a fraudster who cheated them of money by promising to get a clean chit from the government.
The accused, Bangaru Suresh Kumar, gave the impression that he was with the government's general administration department (GAD).
Police said Kumar, a native of Kothapalli in Karimnagar district, is a resident of Banjara Hills, Hyderabad. The cyber crime police found Kumar had collected `28 lakh from his victims. Most of this money was found to have been received from government employees in exchange for favourable reports on their ACB trap cases.
A victim approached the cyber crime police in Vizag after he realised he had been cheated.
After investigations, the police found Kumar watched ACB trap cases videos on Youtube and got in touch with his victims over the phone. He introduced himself as assistant section officer at the GAD. He said their ACB case files had reached the GAD and asked for money to write reports in their favour. The errant officials paid him in lakhs, expecting a clean chit.
Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, cybercrime inspector V. Gopinath said, :He was working a contract employee in a government office in Telangana state. He watched the ACB trap case videos on Youtube and chose to target the errants.”
“Working on the corrupt disposition of the trapped officers, he earned a fair amount of money from them. His bank statement reflects deposits of Rs 28 lakh. We received a complaint last month and started investigating immediately,” the inspector said.
