Cheating gang held,`25 lakh recovered

Nellore: Vedayapalem police arrested four accused in a case, who cheated around Rs 83.8 lakh. Ch Suresh of Dagadarthi purchases paddy locally and transports to Chennai in Tamil Nadu, Rajahmundry in East Godavari and other parts of the country as part of his business.

It is a practice that sometimes drivers collect money from the people and handover to transport operator. Suresh normally transports stocks through trucks being operated by R Ramesh from Autonagar area. Truck staff used to collect money for the stocks and handover to Ramesh, who in turn transfers to the owner, Suresh.

Madhava, who works as driver with Ramesh addicted to bad habits and was waiting for any opportunity for easy money. Ramesh handed over Rs 83.8 lakh to Madhava along with other staff Jeeva, Damodar Rao and Babu Rao for handing over to Suresh on April 29, who was in Marripadu in the district. He suggested to take care of money due to election code.

But, Madhava contacted his friends K Madhavaraj, Bengal Nirmal Roy, P Sivaprasad Reddy, SK Anwar and Dontali Siva and explained his plan to swindle the money. On the day, they were shifting money on a truck Babu Rao stayed back and Madhava, Jeeva and Damodar started from Nellore. On the way, Madhava dropped money bag from the vehicle at lorry stand located in Kovur and Dontali Siva, who was following the truck shifted it to somewhere.

Others in the truck were not having knowledge on the incident and Madhava also dropped journey and joined his team members. Truck with Damodar and Jeeva went to Marripadu as per directions of the owner.

Madhava and five others shared the cash at Rs 14 lakh each at 3rd mile area in city. Transport operator, who came to know about missing of money from the truck through others and lodged a complaint with the Vedayapalem police.

Finally, police held four out of six people involved in the incident and recovered Rs 25.5 lakh from them. Madhava purchased gold worth Rs 6.13 lakh from his share money and they were also recovered by the police.

Vedayapalem police arrested K Madhavaraj, Nirmal Roy, Siva Prasad Reddy, and SK Anwar at 3rd mile on Tuesday and are searching for the main accused Madhava and Dontali Siva, said DSP Murali Krishna. He also said that they have to recover money from other accused.