Police arrests seven-member gang who cheated around 70 youth

The police arrested a seven-member gang which had allegedly cheated around 70 youth after having promised them employment in public sector companies and collected money from them, a police official said here today.
Addressing a press meet, DCP (Zone I) C M Trivikrama Varma said that those arrested include an Andhra Pradesh Special Police constable of the 16th battalion M Ramu Naidu, while others have been identified as P Ramana, P Sankara Rao, Srihari of Vizianagaram, K Sunil Kumar of Visakhapatnam, A Kantha Rao and J Karunakar Rao of Srikakulam.
However one of the main accused namely, M Seshagiri Rao is absconding, the police official said.

He said that P Ramana and M Seshagiri Rao, who met at an army rally at Kakinada became friends, and hatched a plot to cheat unemployed youth to make easy money.
They took help from Sunil, Kantha Rao, Ramu Naidu, Karunakar Rao, Sankar Rao and Srihari to dupe youth claiming that they could leak the exam paper of the Staff Selection Committee (SSC) exam, which was conducted on October 4, the police official said.
Explaining their modus operandi, the police official said that gang members used to approach educated youngsters in Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram as well as Srikakulam district, and lure them with offers to leak the SSC question to them.

Initially, the accused did not take any money from youngsters by force as per instructions of kingpins Sehagiri Rao and Ramana, in order to gain their confidence, though they collected Rs 50,000 from a few candidates later, the police official said.

They convinced 76 youngsters and asked them to reach Visakhapatnam the day before the SSC exam.
After the youngsters reached Visakhapatnam, the accused took them to a flat in the Marripalem area, collected their certificates and promised to give them the question paper, the police official said.
However, later they were told that they would get their certificates back only if they paid Rs 2 lakh, the police official said.