The Hyderabad police, on Thursday, arrested a 32-year-old former Andhra Pradesh cricketer for impersonating a senior official from the office of Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy and attempting to defraud prominent business figures.
The Cyber Crime Police said Budumuru Nagaraju, a former Ranji cricketer, created a fake email ID reventhreddyosd@gmail.com and sent fraudulent emails to various business persons while impersonating the Personal Secretary and Officer on Special Duty (OSD) to the Chief Minister of Telangana State.
Nagaraju, a Srikakulam native, allegedly used a mix of email, WhatsApp, and phone calls to contact and attempt to deceive his targets, the police said.
The police received a complaint from the OSD to the CM of Telangana concerning the fraudulent activity. “An individual, mobile number 9666349191, is sending fake emails (e.g., from reventhreddyosd@gmail.com) and making WhatsApp calls, falsely representing themselves as the OSD’s Personal Secretary and Officer on Special Duty. One instance involved contacting Krishna Mohan Bollineni, MD of Bollineni Infra Projects,” the complaint said.
A case was registered under sections 66C and 66D of the IT Act and 319(2) (cheating by personation) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
The Srikakulam-native is found to be earlier involved in 13 cases in Telangana and 16 cases in Andhra Pradesh. Additionally, a Non-Bailable Warrant (NBW) is pending against him in the XII additional chief metropolitan magistrate court, Nampally, police said.
Nagaraju, in earlier instances, posed as high-profile political associates, including the personal secretaries of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, former AP CM Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, former Telangana minister KT Rama Rao, etc leading to his arrest in multiple cities.
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According to the police, he targeted several senior businessmen, including managing directors of Rapido, Gupta Realty, and Bollineni Infra Projects, using this fake identity, and attempted to solicit financial assistance under the guise of official requests.
The police have issued a public advisory urging citizens to exercise caution and not respond to emails or messages purportedly from senior govt officials requesting financial favours. Victims of cybercrime are encouraged to report incidents by dialling 1930 or visiting cybercrime.gov.in.
