The Hyderabad police on Friday arrested three persons for allegedly committing fraud by withdrawing the Telugu Akademi's funds by closing fixed deposits in banks. The Central Crime Station police arrested AP Mercantile Cooperative Credit Society Ltd Chairman and Managing Director BVVN Satyanarayana Rao, a resident of Vijayawada, the Society's Manager, Operations Vedula Padmavathi, and Relationship Manager Sayyad Mohiuddin (both of Hyderabad).
In relation to this case, the state government removed Somi Reddy as Telugu Akademi director. Reddy, who is the joint director for adult education, was holding the Telugu Akademi post as an additional charge.
According to Joint Commissioner of Police (Detective Department) Avinash Mohanty, investigations revealed that the accused had opened fake accounts in the name of the Telugu Akademi in their society by accepting fake IDs. The accused allegedly liquidated FDs of the Akademi and transferred funds to these accounts, amounting to nearly Rs 60 crore.
On the complaint of the director of Telugu Akademi, a case was registered regarding withdrawal of Rs 43 crore by closing fixed deposits. The case was registered under Indian Penal Code Sections 409 (criminal breach of trust), 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (cheating), 465 (forgery), 467 (forgery of valuable security, will etc), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (fraudulently using a forged document as genuine) r/w 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention).
The accused persons are also involved in similar offences in two other cases, the Joint CP said.
The Akademi had deposited the money earned from the retail sale of textbooks of Intermediate, degree and post-graduation courses and the books for preparation of various competitive exams.
The alleged fraud came to light after Akademi director Somi Reddy directed officials to examine the bank accounts following the directions of the Supreme Court for bifurcation of the Akademi's funds and assets between two Telugu states Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
The fraud was detected by the officials when they visited three branches of two Public Sector Banks to ascertain the total amount in FDs as part of asset bifurcation between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. This is when the bank officials revealed that the FDs were already liquidated and transferred to various accounts as per an earlier request from the Akademi. Realising someone had submitted forged documents, the Akademi officials had filed a police complaint.