Hyderabad: Eight persons, including a former MLA’s personal assistant, were arrested by the Suryapet district police on Monday in the ongoing investigation into the illegal diversion of the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund (CMRF) money. It is the second case dealt by the Suryapet district police for the misuse of CMRF cheques.District police said that computer operator P Venkateshwarlu and P Omkar, who used to work in the office of the former MLA, were arrested along with six other persons, who were the illegal beneficiaries.Omkar, the PA of the former MLA, and Venkateshwarlu, instead of distributing the funds to the actual beneficiaries, retained the CMRF cheques issued before the 2023 assembly election during the BRS tenure. By identifying persons with similar names to the actual beneficiaries, the accused created fraudulent documents, which helped in the diversion of funds to the bank accounts of illegal beneficiaries, including labourers and shopkeepers.The MLA’s staff were supposed to distribute 51 cheques. Of these, seven cheques, worth nearly 10 lakh, were misused. The remaining cheques worth 25 lakh are still with the accused. Omkar and Venkateshwarlu gave commissions to the illegal beneficiaries for allowing their accounts to be misused. The arrested accused were sent in judicial remand. Police said that the fraud was committed by the accused without the knowledge of the former MLA.
