A man posing as an official in Telangana Chief Minister's Office (CMO) was today arrested for allegedly attempting to cheat the Commissioner of Korutla Municipality in Karimnagar district, police said.
The accused, R Surya Prakash Chary, working as a welder, tried to collect money from the senior civic bureaucrat, A Vani Reddy, stating she has been selected for the best officer award, police said.
Chary telephoned Vani Reddy and stated that he is calling from CMO at Telangana Secretariat. He told her she has been selected as best officer of the district and asked her to attend felicitation programme at Ravindra Bharathi here, police said.
The accused further informed her that Telangana Chief Minister is attending the function and asked her to deposit Rs 35,000 for the programme, police said. He subsequently sent his bank account details through SMS to Vani Reddy.
"As she suspected genuineness of the call, she enquired with CMO, which denied claims made by the caller. After getting convinced that it was a fraud call, she filed a complaint with police," a release from Hyderabad Police said.
Acting on the complaint, police nabbed Chary, who had been arrested in similar cheating and extortion cases in 2013 and 2014.
He earlier worked as a stringer for Telugu newspapers and a weekly, but lost his job for acts of misconduct. The accused used to extract money from businessmen, government officials, hospitals and schools posing as a senior journalist or PA to ministers, the release added.
