Gambling addict cheats realtors of `90.5 lakh

Addicted to casinos, a man from Khammam deceived real estate brokers of over `90.5 lakh. The accused was arrested by the Rachakonda police on Tuesday and produced before a court for judicial remand.

According to the Rachakonda police, on December 14, B. Srinivas Reddy complained that he contacted a person who put out an advertisement about the sale of a plot at Ghatkesar. After a few interactions over the phone, Mr Reddy paid `15 lakh towards advance to a man who claimed to be the land owner.

After receiving the money, the latter stopped responding to Mr Reddy who lodged a complaint with the police.

During the probe, the police found that the receiver of the money was one Salavadi Nagaraju, 33, who runs a share market business at Miryalguda.

The police said the accused was addicted to casinos, for which he frequently visits Goa. As he was losing money, Nagaraju planned to dupe the public and spend money at casinos.

He deceived several people at casinos and collected the details of their bank accounts and debit cards, which he used for fraudulent transactions.

The accused collects information about the land parcels and owners online, contacts them and shows interest.

He collects copies of land documents through Whatsapp and collects bank account details of the owners promising them that he would deposit money. Then he traps the real estate brokers showing the documents and makes them deposit money in the bank accounts of the land owners, he then contacts the owners requesting to give back the money as he is ill and needs the money for treatment.

So far, Nagaraju was involved in as many as 14 cases in Hyderabad, Cyberabad and Rachakonda and collected over `90.5 lakh from the victims. Four mobile phones and three SIMs were recovered from him during the arrest, said the Rachakonda police.