GUNTUR: Palnadu police on Wednesday arrested a cyber fraudster for swindling `46 lakh from a woman in Vijayawada. The accused has been identified as Bala Vamsi Krishna (35), a resident of Vijayawada, Superintendent of Police Ravishankar Reddy said and added that Krishna is an engineering graduate and used to work at a customer care centre. He was reportedly involved in ATM-related crimes. Later, he shifted to Bengaluru and lost a huge amount of money in cricket betting, horse racing and gambling. Following this, his wife divorced him.
In a bid to clear his debts, he searched for videos on YouTube to learn how to make easy money. He then created a fake account on a matrimonial website under the name K Srikanth and stated that he worked as a senior data coordinator at a software company in the US. The complainant, a native of Narsaraopet came across his profile and contacted him. Krishna promised to take the woman to the US after marriage and tricked her to send her bank account details and related documents. He asked her to send money to apply for visa and took `46 lakh from her.
After a few days, the woman realised she was cheated as Krishna stopped responding to her. She then filed a complaint with the Narasaraopet police station. Under the instructions of SP Ravishankar Reddy, a special team was formed along with IT core team. They took up investigation and arrested Krishna at his residence in Vijayawada. A sum of `38.2 lakh was recovered from him and his mobile phone was seized. During investigation, the police also found that as many as 17 similar cases were filed against the accused at various police stations in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.