The Jubilee Hills police have arrested four persons, including an employee from former health minister T. Harish Rao’s office, in connection to a Chief Minister Relief Fund cheque fraud.
Jogula Naresh Kumar, a contract-based data entry operator at Mr. Rao’s office along with Korlapati Vamshi, a car driver, Balagoni Venkatesh Goud, an attender at Assembly and Omkar, a resident of Godavarikhani, have been arrested on Wednesday evening, officials informed.
The arrest follows the complaint by 30-year-old Patloth Ravi Nayak, a farmer from Medak.
Mr. Patloth had applied for the CM Relief Fund in January 2023 after his wife died in November 2022 while undergoing treatment for snake bite. He had spent about ₹5 lakh on the treatment.
As per the FIR, Naresh Kumar passed on two cheques of ₹50,000 and ₹37,500 meant for Mr. Patloth, to Korlapati Vamshi and Venkatesh Goud in exchange for a commission. Omkar, posing as P. Ravi Nayak, aided the same and the cheques were encashed in the State Bank of India branch in Jubilee Hills.
The police have filed the case under Sections 417 (Punishment for cheating), 419 (Punishment for cheating by personation), 420 (Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 120(b) r/w 34 (Acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention of conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code and section 66(B)(Punishment for identity theft) and and 66(C) (dishonestly make use of the electronic signature, password or any other unique identification ) of the IT Act.
