An engineering college drop-out landed behind the bars here on Saturday after he duped a government employee of ₹1 lakh, promising to arrange bank loan of ₹1 crore.
Ten mobile phones and 10 bank passbooks of different names were seized from the arrested Malepati Harsha Vardhan. The accused hailing from Nellore in Andhra Pradesh used to indulge in cricket betting and cheating others with false assurances of arranging bank loans.
He discontinued his engineering course from second year and took up odd jobs. Presently, he is working as store keeper at a hotel in Chennai. Three years ago, he rang up the complainant, who lives in Hyderabad, asking him if he was interested in securing a bank loan of ₹10 lakh.
Vardhan told the complainant that the latter can avail ₹10 lakh loan by paying a processing fee of ₹20,000. He deposited the money in the bank account specified by Vardhan. A few days later, Vardhan called him again saying bank rules had changed and an additional amount of ₹20,000 needs to be paid for releasing the loan. Then on he lured the complainant of higher quantum of loan, thereby demanding more money as processing fee. “Thus, he went on demanding money on one pretext or the other and relieved the complainant of ₹10 lakh in past three years,” the investigators said.
Realising that he was taken for a ride, the victim finally approached Hyderabad Central Crime Station which transferred the case to Crime Investigation Department. Analysing the phone calls the accused had made to the victim, investigators caught him at Guduru of Nellore and brought to Hyderabad.
