VIJAYAWADA: Vijayawada city police on Friday arrested two persons in connection with the alleged liquidation of fixed deposits (FDs) worth Rs 14.6 crore belonging to Andhra Pradesh Cooperative Oil Seed Growers’ Federation Ltd and State Warehousing Corporation by using fabricated documents similar to the Andhra Akademi scam.
Addressing mediapersons, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) V Harshavardan Raju said the two accused Guttindini Sandeep Kumar (former branch manager of Indian Overseas Bank, Bhavanipuram) and Pusalapati Yohan Raju were arrested. The police freezed Rs 77.74 lakh in several accounts in different banks and seized Rs 12 lakh from their possession.
The DCP further said the role of eight others were found in the scam and seven of them were arrested by Hyderabad CCS police for their involvement in Rs 64.5 crore Telugu Akademi scam. “The role of seven accused Chunduri Venkata Koti Sai Kumar, Nanduri Venkata Ramana, Mareedu Venkateswara Rao alias Dr Venkatesh, Yerrajennela Somasekhar alias Rajkumar, Krishna Reddy, G Padmanabhan and Bandari Veera Naga Satyanarayana Rao was identified in the two cases reported here in Vijayawada. The seven accused will be produced in the court by bringing them in Prisoner Transit warrant from Hyderabad and special teams were formed to nab another accused Madhan,” said the DCP.
The DCP said that the scam came to light on October 14 following complaints filed by the representatives of AP Cooperative Oil Seed Growers’ Federation and State Warehousing Corporation at Atkur and Bhavanipuram police stations respectively that Rs 14.6 crore worth FDs were liquidated from the banks during their internal audit in the wake of Telugu Akademi FDs scam. In their internal investigation, they learnt that the FDs were transferred to other unknown accounts between December 2020 to April 2021.
Based on their complaint, Bhavanipuram and Atkur police registered two different cases under Sections 409 (Criminal breach of trust), 419 (Punishment for cheating by personation), 420 (Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 468 (Forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (Using forged document), 120(b) r/w 34 of IPC. The liquidated amount was transferred to around 14 different banks by the accused across the State.
The angle of Hawala transactions were also observed in the multi-crore scam. Explaining the modus operandi, Harshavardhan said the accused posed themselves as bank representatives and approached junior-level employees of corporations/societies/associations and lured them with incentives and costly gifts for their cooperation. Promising the corporation employees of a higher rate of interest, they convinced them to transfer the FDs kept in other banks.
Using their signatures, the accused opened a fake account in the name of the respective corporation and gave them fake FD bonds. Later, the amount was liquidated using the same forged signatures to their own accounts. “The accused Koti Sai Kumar, Krishna Reddy, Venkata Ramana and other three are repeat offenders and have similar cases filed against them in the past,” he added.
‘Scamsters’ liquidate FDs worth Rs 14.6 crore
The scam came to light on October 14 following complaints filed by the representatives of AP Cooperative Oil Seed Growers’ Federation and State Warehousing Corporation at Atkur and Bhavanipuram police stations respectively that Rs 14.6 crore worth FDs were liquidated from the banks during their internal audit. In their internal investigation, they learnt that the FDs were transferred to other accounts between December 2020 to April 2021