Hyderabad police arrest two in ₹8.7 lakh CMRF fraud
HYDERABAD: Jubilee Hills police arrested two men for misappropriating funds from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund (CMRF) through a conspiracy involving fake beneficiaries.
The accused were identified as Pagadala Srinivasa Rao (23) and Yasa Venkateshwarulu (50), both natives of Tanikella village in Konijerala mandal, Khammam district. Police said they fraudulently deposited CMRF cheques into their personal accounts and withdrew the funds.
Cases have been registered under Crime Nos. 254/2024, 273/2024, 284/2024, 470/2025, 476/2025, and 479/2025 of Jubilee Hills police station. The offences are booked under Sections 409 (criminal breach of trust), 417 (cheating), 419 (cheating by impersonation), 467 (forgery), and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code, along with Section 66C of the Information Technology Act.
Detective Inspector M Satyanarayana, who led the operation with his team, said the two confessed to their involvement during interrogation. They were produced before court and remanded to judicial custody.
13 arrested so far
Police said a total of 13 persons have been arrested so far in connection with the scam, which deprived genuine beneficiaries of relief. Efforts are on to trace others who are absconding and to recover the misappropriated amount.
Earlier arrests were made on July 15, 2025, when four accused — Jogula Naresh Kumar (42), Balagoni Venkatesh (37), Korlapati Vamshi (24), and Pulipaka Omkar (34) — were taken into custody.
On September 19, 2025, another seven accused, including Potla Ravi (46), Janagama Nagaraju (40), Mateti Bhasker (33), Dharmaram Raju (50), Kampalli Santhosh (35), Chityala Laxmi (65), and Asampelli Laxmi, were arrested for similar offences.
Modus operandi
Police said the conspiracy began after the 2023 elections, when the then minister’s office aide unlawfully took possession of 230 sanctioned but undistributed CMRF cheques.
Nineteen cheques were deposited into State Bank of India accounts at Jubilee Hills branch using forged documents and similar names. The total amount misappropriated was ₹8.7 lakh, which was shared among the accused.
The investigation is being supervised by Deputy Commissioner of Police S M Vijay Kumar, Assistant Commissioner of Police S Venkat Reddy, and Station House Officer K Venkateshwara Reddy.