Hyderabad police have arrested two more people in a scam that stole over Rs 8.71 lakh from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund (CMRF). The suspects, Pagadala Srinivasa Rao, 23, and Yasa Venkateshwarulu, 50, posed as fake beneficiaries to pull off the fraud.
This brings the total number of arrests in the CMRF scam to 13. Police say the duo deposited government-issued cheques into their own bank accounts and quickly withdrew the cash. Their scheme cheated the government and left real victims without the help they needed.
Both men, from Khammam district, confessed to the crime when caught. Officers took them to court for remand.
Just two days ago, on September 19, police nabbed seven more fake beneficiaries, including two women from Godavarikhani in Peddapalli district. These arrests tie into five ongoing cases from last year, with charges under Indian Penal Code sections for criminal breach of trust, cheating, forgery, and conspiracy, plus a section of the Information Technology Act.
Back in July, four other suspects went down for the same CMRF fraud: Jogula Naresh Kumar, 42, Balagoni Venkatesh, 37, Korlapati Vamshi, 24, and Pulipaka Omkar, 34. Naresh Kumar, who once worked in a minister’s office under the previous BRS government, grabbed 230 undistributed cheques after the 2023 assembly elections.
The group zeroed in on 19 cheques meant for people who never followed up. They forged details to deposit them into bank accounts with similar names at an SBI branch on Road No. 5 in Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad, pocketing the funds for themselves.
Jubilee Hills police, led by Station House Officer K. Venkateshwara Reddy, continue to investigate this misappropriation of relief funds, aiming to recover the stolen money and ensure aid reaches genuine beneficiaries.
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