Prakasam cops arrest fraudster wanted in AP & TS

Ongole: Ongole rural police arrested a man who has been cheating people for more than a decade and wanted in both AP and Telangana.

Giving details of the case, district SP Malika Garg told the media that the man, identified as Potluri Sribala Vamsikrishna, a native of Ashok Nagar in Kakinada. According to her, they received a complaint from a woman from Maddipadu during the Spandana grievance programme recently about a man, who identified himself as Pratapaneni Rajesh Kumar, who expressed interest in her profile on a matrimonial website. He claimed that he was working as a software engineer in New York for the last three years, but was transferred to Hyderabad due to Covid pandemic.

After a few discussions, the parents of the woman believed his claims that he should have to returning to the USA anytime, and the marriage should be performed soon. He told her that he needed a loan, which he would repay in two months, just to increase his CIBIL score so that he can get US visa. To convince her, he applied for a loan from a bank and advised her also to improve her CIBIL score. He then directed her to apply for loans through various money lending apps like CRED, Zest Money, and made her transfer the amount received from them into his accounts. In all, he managed to swindle Rs 17,49,649 from her in this way.

However, the women grew suspicious and approached SP Malika Garg in the Spandana. After registering a case at Maddipadu police station, Ongole DSP U Nagaraju, and rural CI R Rambabu formed a special team to investigate the case. With the help of the IT core team, the police team found that the original name of the man is Potluri Sribala Vamsikrishna, of Ashok Nagar in Kakinada. He completed his B. Pharmacy in 2008 at Aditya Engineering College and lived in Khammam and Vijayawada, before shifting to Hyderabad. He worked in HSBC Call Centre, tried his luck in share market and got addicted to racing and gambling. To feed his addictions, he also committed ATM frauds and began cheating women on matrimony websites with fake profiles.

The SP said that the accused Vamsikrishna is wanted in more than 16 cheating and fraud cases at various police stations in Hyderabad, Rajamahendravaram, Visakhapatnam, Cyberabad, Rachakonda and Ramagundam since 2009.

Maddipadu police arrested him on Saturday morning and recovered Rs 8 lakh and a mobile phone from him. They sent a letter to IndusInd Bank requesting it to freeze his account which has a balance of Rs 3,18,970.

The SP appreciated the DSP U Nagaraju, CI R Rambabu, SI T Sriram, head constable Ch Umamaheswara Rao, PC M Anil, home guard Sk Nagoor, along with the IT core team members and presented them with commendation certificates and cash rewards for cracking the case in a short time.