The two imposters arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Saturday on charges of posing as officers of the Central agency and demanding huge bribes from the accused in bank fraud cases had threatened senior politician and four-time Telugu Desam Party MP Rayapati Sambasiva Rao with dire consequences.
Investigation revealed that one of the suspects Y. Manivardhan Reddy of Hyderabad made several calls to the mobile phone of Mr. Rao and offered to help him in the bank fraud case.
Last month, the CBI registered a case against the senior politician and others on charges of cheating the Union Bank of India of several crores.
Reddy and his associate Selvam Ramaraj of Madurai made several calls to the mobile number of the former MP, who was the Director and Promoter Chairman of Transtroy (India) Ltd, and offered to help in settling the case in his favour. The duo used a malicious software to spoof the landline number of CBI Headquarters, New Delhi. They made it appear as if they had high-level connections with officials in the agency. In the first week of January, Reddy met Mr. Rao at his Guntur residence and demanded bribe on behalf of a senior CBI officer.
He threatened him of serious consequences if the money was not paid in two days.
Complaint by informant
However, the CBI’s First Information Report (FIR) against the duo was not based on any complaint lodged by the former MP, but by an informant.
Further investigation revealed that Reddy and Ramrajatala collected money from different people in the name of senior Central government functionaries, promising them of favourable action in their cases.
Investigation is on to check how Reddy and Ramrajatala got together, who helped them in spoofing the landline number of the Central Bureau of Investigation headquarters and if any other person was associated with them in committing the offence.
