Kadapa police arrest man for duping kin of Covid victims of Rs 9 lakh

KADAPA: Kadapa police on Wednesday arrested a person for duping families of Covid victims in the name of extending compensation under the YSR Bima scheme.The accused was identified as Venkatesh, 31, of Midathuru village of Kazipet mandal.

The accused, after obtaining data of the Covid victims, used to call the ANMs of the locality and make them believe that he is from the government and inform the ANM that the family of the victim will get benefit under the insurance scheme and asked ANMs to inform the family in advance.

Later, the accused through his Delhi-based acquaintances made calls to the family members and sent them a URL link. Once the victim’s family filled their details on the link, an OTP was generated. Using the OTP, the accused siphoned off money from the bank accounts of the families.

Disclosing the case details, police said that they had received complaints from 10 families that they lost nearly Rs 9 lakh from their bank accounts. A case was registered at Kadapa I Town police station on October 6 and a probe was launched.

As part of the case investigation, Kadapa I Town CI NV Nagarjuna and cybercrime team on the basis of UPI IDs identified nine bank accounts and found an amount of Rs 7.34 lakh in those bank accounts which were immediately froze, Superintendent of Police (SP) KKN Anburajan said.

The SP said the accused was arrested near IRCONE Circle at 8 am on Wednesday.During the preliminary interrogation, the accused admitted to his crime.