A couple, who ‘cheated’ the managing director of a private company with false promises in a land deal, was arrested by the Cyber Crime Police here on Tuesday. The arrested were P. Venkata Ramana, an employee of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP) and his wife Jayalakshmi.
Giving details to the media, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) P. Viswa Prasad said that K. Ramesh Kumar, K. Sandhya and A. Madhavi Mohan approached G. Kalyan Rao (47), MD of Pragathi Edifice Private Limited, on July 10, 2007. The trio negotiated a business deal for development and construction of a multi-storied building on a land measuring 5308.56 square yards, which they said was owned by P. Venkata Ramana, P. Jayalakshmi, P.R. Raju, T.V. Sumiki and K.K. Veni at Tunglam village.
Advance paid
Believing them, Kalyan Rao paid a total amount of Rs.1.6 crore as advance in instalments for the purpose of construction of the building. The construction work failed to progress and on questioning, the trio gave evasive replies for the delay in the construction work. Suspecting foul play, Kalyan Rao made enquiries about their antecedents and learnt that K. Ramesh Kumar, K. Sandhya, A. Madhavi Mohan, P. Venkata Ramana, P. Jayalakshmi and R. Surya Rao, a mediator, have teamed up and duped him.
The six-member team owned only 58 cents of land, which was equal to 2807.2 square yards and not 5308.56 square yards as they had claimed. The documents pertaining to the remaining land were forged by them.
Of the 58 cents, 27 cents were pledged to Union Bank and 32 cents was sold to 12 employees of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant. Kalyan Rao lodged a complaint with the Gajuwaka Police, a couple of years ago. The case was transferred to Cyber Crime Investigation cell (CCIC), as a special case.
The remaining accused in the case were already arrested last year. Mr. Viswa Prasad appreciated the efforts made by CCIC Inspector B.V. Venkateswara Rao, SI S. Ramesh and their team.