Hyderabad: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested a man who was on the run for the last 20 years after cheating and defrauding State Bank of India (SBI), where he worked in Hyderabad, to the tune of Rs. 50 lakh.
The accused, V Chalapathi Rao, worked as a computer operator at the State Bank of India’s Chandulal Baradari branch Hyderabad in 2002. He had misappropriated an amount of Rs. 50 lakh, after which the CBI registered a case.
Chalapathi Rao cheated SBI to the tune of Rs. 50 lakh through fabricated quotations of electronic shops and fake salary certificates created in the names of his family members and close associates and misappropriated the crime proceeds, the CBI maintained.
Chalapathi was ‘missing’ since 2004 and to misguide the CBI officials, his wife, who is also an accused in the above fraud case, even lodged a complaint at Kamatipura police station alleging Chalapathi is missing.
“She had also filed a petition in the Civil Court to declare the absconding accused as dead after completion of seven years after the proclamation order allegedly went missing. In this regard, an order/decree too was passed by the concerned Civil Court of Hyderabad,” the CBI said.
During the investigation, the wife of the accused obtained a stay from High Court of Telangana on the efforts to attach the property of Proclaimed Offender (PO). The PO resorted to numerous efforts including constantly changing locations, contact numbers, identity, etc. However, CBI relentlessly pursued leads and finally caught him from a village in Tamil Nadu.
The CBI stated that Chalapathi had fled to Salem in Tamil Nadu and married a lady in 2007 by changing his name as M. Vineet Kumar and obtained an Aadhaar number as well. Through his second wife, CBI got information that he was in touch with his son out of his first marriage.
However, in 2014 he left Salem without any information and reached Bhopal where worked as loan recovery agent and then shifted to Rudrapur in Uttarakhand, where he worked in a School. When the team reached to arrest him at Rudrapur, it was found that he had fled the said place in 2016.
With the help of email IDs and Aadhaar details of the suspect in the name of M. Vineet Kumar, CBI approached ‘Gmail Law Enforcement Department’. Through leads given by authorities, it was found out that Chalapathi shifted to an Ashram, in Verul village, Aurangabad, Maharashtra. It was further revealed that the man had again changed his name as Swamy Vidhitatmanand Teertha and also obtained an Aadhaar Card.
Moreover, in December, 2021, he left said Ashram after allegedly cheating it to the tune of around Rs. 70 lakh Subsequently he shifted to Bharatpur (Rajasthan) as Vidhitatmanand Teertha and stayed there till 8 July, 2024. He thereafter left Bharatpur and reached Tirunelveli to stay with one of his disciples.
“During this period, the suspect has changed contact numbers more than 8-10. It was also gathered that he was planning to escape to Sri Lanka by sea route. He was finally arrested in Narsinganallur village, Tirunelveli (Tamil Nadu) where he was hiding on Sunday,” said the CBI officials.
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