SRIKAKULAM: Close on the heels of a gang duping private schools of Rs 8.3 lakh posing as vigilance officers, police have arrested a suspended employee of DEO office on charges of collecting lakhs of rupees from educational institutions by masquerading as a vigilance officer.
The accused, identified as Dulapala Laxmana Rao (56), a suspended auditor of the Srikakulam DEO office, conducted fake raids on as many as 200 private schools in Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram and Srikakulam districts, posing him as an auditor, SP Brahma Reddy told the media here on Sunday. Laxmana Rao had threatened the school managements over poor maintenance of records, violation of government norms and collected money.
In the recent past, he collected Rs 16,000 from Sri Rama School at JR Puram, `13,500 from Sri Surya School and `10,000 from Twinkle School in Srikakulam district. The police had started probing the case with complaints pouring in by several schools.
A team of police of JR Puram and Ponduru detained Laxmana Rao at Viziangaram. However, the accused claimed that he had conducted the raids in his official capacity (as auditor) as he had not received any suspension orders from the higher authorities. The accused, a native of PM Palem of Visakhapatanam, is living in VUDA Colony of Viziangaram.
A source of the DEO office said that Laxmana Rao was repartriated some months ago and transferred to ICDS, Paderu in Visakhapatnam district. But, he refused to join at his new place of posting. A case has been registered at JR Puram police station under the Section 384 and 417 of IPC. Further investigation is on.