Hyderabad: Begging mafia cheating & seeking money in name of charity nabbed

Hyderabad: The Hyderabad Commissioner’s Task Force South-East Zone team, along with the Malakpet police, nabbed a begging mafia gang who were cheating and seeking money from people in the name of charity. The police arrested 10 persons and seized two auto-rickshaws, Rs 1.38 lakh and some documents from them.

According to the police, the accused were cheating the public by begging in the name of charity named ‘Amma Cheyutha Foundation’ and fulfilling their daily needs and for their lavish life. The police booked a case u/s 419,420,384,341,290r/w 34 IPC.

The arrested persons were: Kethavath Ravi, who is a collection agent (35), a native of Nizamabad district, and KethavathMangu (30), of Nalgonda district, also a collection agent; Gaddi Ganesh (43), founder-organiser of the foundation, Ramavath Anusha (18), Banavath Sangeetha (28), Nenavath Sailaja (26), Ramavath Yellamma (20), KethavathChilki (25), wife of Mangu, Sabavath Sunitha (26) and Kethavath Saroja (25), who posed as beggars. They are natives of Nalgonda district.

The police said brothers Kethavath Ravi and KethavathManguapproached Ganesh and hatched a plan to beg money in the name of charity which is working for disabled persons.

Ganesh gave them collection boxes, ID cards and visiting cards which are labelled with the foundation and instructed them to seek money. Later Ravi and Mangu hired women on a percentage basis. “Daily during the evening, they picked women from their residence and gave them collection boxes, ID cards and visiting cards and dropped them at busy traffic junctions of the twin cities,” said Ch. Rupesh, DCP of the zone.

He said after 9 pm they would pick up the women from the traffic junction and bring them to their homes and give a share of 35% from the collected amount to each woman.

Also, they created one QR CODE which is linked to their bank accounts and pasted the same on collection boxes.

“Both brothers purchased open plots at Nadergul, Badangpet, Turkayamjal with the begged money,” the DCP said. On credible information, the team along with Malakpet police apprehended them at Moosarambagh Crossroads, Malakpet, and seized the material.