Hyderabad: It’s not the first time that Chunduri Venkata Koti Sai Kumar has been arrested for fixed deposit (FD) frauds. The main accused in the ₹64.5 crore Telugu Akademi FDs fraud has been at it for close to a decade now.
Sai Kumar (49) was earlier arrested in 2012 by CID sleuths of undivided Andhra Pradesh for defrauding AP State Minority Finance Corporation of ₹55.47 crore in a similar FD scam, Hyderabad police commissioner Anjani Kumar said. Subsequently, he was behind the FD frauds in AP Housing Board (₹6 crore) and Northern Coal Fields (₹25 crore), both being investigated by the CBI.
Sai Kumar is suspected to have pocketed at least ₹20 crore from his latest hit on Telugu Akademi. The accused, a director in a Begumpet-based software company, has a cost and management accountancy background.
“Sai Kumar claimed to have invested ₹5 crore in a Dubaibased company, spent ₹5 crore on 34 acres of disputed land in Pedda Amberpet, loaned ₹5 crore to friends and used another ₹5 crore to clear debts. We have to get him in police custody to verify details,” said an investigator.
During questioning, Sai Kumar claimed AP Mercantile Cooperative Credit Society chairman/MD Satyanarayana got 10% (about ₹6 cr), while Somasekhar, who posed as Telugu Akademi director, took ₹2.5 crore. The accused bankers too got a share running in crores and rest was shared among other accused. Cops are yet to make any substantial recovery. “About ₹12-13 lakh in bank accounts of accused has been frozen and about ₹4 lakh cash seized during arrests,” CCS JCP Avinash Mohanty said.
