The Chittoor sub-division police on Monday nabbed a 33-year-old man from Ongole district, wanted in several cyber crimes involving an amount of ₹4 crore, on the outskirts of Chittoor, and seized ₹1 lakh worth ganja, ₹50,000 in cash and two brand new mobile phones.
Superintendent of Police S. Senthil Kumar and Deputy SP N. Sudhakar Reddy, who produced the accused Punnati Srinivas of Addanki before the media, said that he was involved in several cyber frauds since 2017. He duped about 20 women, luring them into marriage through matrimonial websites and dating apps. The accused was also involved in ganja smuggling. He procured stocks from Vizag and supplied them to agents in Bengaluru and Chennai.
Mr. Sudhakar Reddy and circle inspector (Chittoor East) Balaiah were supervising the highway patrol at Murakambattu, when they spotted the accused moving suspiciously, waiting to board a bus towards Bengaluru. They took him into custody and found him in possession of 4 kg ganja.
Preliminary investigation revealed that he was in remand in Charlapalle and Musheerabad jails in Hyderabad in recent years, for involvement in cyber crimes.
The officials said Srinivas, who discontinued M.Tech at the Indian Institute of Technology (Kanpur), had worked with several software companies in Bengaluru and Chennai till 2017. Later, he started a fake software consultancy firm and collected lakhs of rupees from many youth with false job promises.
He lured unmarried women IT professionals through a couple of popular matrimonial sites. Feigning love and proposing marriage with the potential targets, Srinivas tricked them into sending huge amounts to him online. In recent months, a woman IT professional from Narasaraopet in Guntur district had transferred ₹40 lakh to him. Another IT professional from Ongole gave him ₹7 lakh and a woman paediatrician from Madanapalle ₹1.4 lakh, the officials said.
“Preliminary investigation showed that the accused might have collected ₹4 crore from his victims in a span of four years. We are in the process of identifying more victims in Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and elsewhere,” Mr. Sudhakar Reddy said.
In order to avoid detection of his frauds and whereabouts, Srinivas used to frequently change mobiles and SIM cards after procuring them clandestinely in the names of his relatives and old acquaintances.
A special party is also probing the involvement of Srinivas in ganja smuggling and his contacts.
A case was registered and he was sent in remand.
Published - September 07, 2021 01:18 am IST
