Hyderabad: Three persons, including a government employee and a contract employee posted in the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund (CMRF) wing, were arrested for cheating a farmer by pocketing Rs 87,500 that was sanctioned to him without his knowledge
The case came to light after the farmer P. Ravi Naik, 30, approached the Jubilee Hills police station and lodged a complaint on March 21.
Naik stated that he belonged to Pirla thanda at Abenda in Medak district and had married Lalitha Bai, also a farmer, in 2022. On November 5 of the same year, Lalitha was bitten by a snake when they working in their farm. She was immediately rushed to Balaji Hospital in Sangareddy and then to Wellness Hospital in Ameerpet. Naik had to sell his farm to raise Rs five lakh towards the hospital bills.
In January 2023, he applied for CMRF assistance. He checked the status online and found that his application was not sanctioned by the government.
In his complaint, he stated that he had recently gone to the CMRF office to enquire about the status of his application. He was told that he had been sanctioned Rs 87,500.
He said that one Jogula Naresh Kumar, a data entry operator at a former health minister’s office, was giving away cheques issued by the state government to the beneficiaries. He came to know that Naresh Kumar had given his cheque to one Korlapati, who was supposed to give it to him, police said.
Naik’s efforts to contact Naresh Kumar went in vain.
During investigation it was found that Naresh Kumar, employed on a contract basis, had colluded with one Vamsi, a car driver, and Balagoni Venkateh Goud, an attendant in the Legislative Assembly, who collected commissions from the beneficiaries. They collected the unclaimed funds to the tune of Rs 87,500 in the name of P. Ravi Naik, said K. Venkateshwar Reddy, Jubilee Hills PS inspector.
One Omkar from Godavarikhani, and Vamsi brought forth another person, who presented himself as Ravi Naik, and withdrew the sanctioned amount from SBI’s Jubilee Hills branch road number 5, Naik said in his complaint.
Based on the complaint, cases of cheating, criminal conspiracy, accessing a computer resource without permission under section 417, 419, 420, 120(b) read with 34 IPC and section 66(B) & 66(C) IT Act were registered against Venkatesh, Vamshi and Omkar. The case is being investigated by R. Madhusudhan Reddy, detective inspector of Jubilee Hills.
The arrested have been remanded to judicial custody.
