High-flying fraud was inspired by film Catch Me If You Can
A cheat, who wore several hats, of a philanthropist, an ardent lover of luxury cars, a sports personality and a corporate honcho, Harshvardhan Reddy, was on the run after duping banks across three states. He had to apply his brakes when the vigilance department (South) in Delhi caught the imposter last Wednesday.
Inspired by the Hollywood flick Catch Me If You Can, Harshvardhan Reddy, a hospitality and management professional, was arrested at Patiala house courts on Friday based on the credible input for duping several banks and people across Delhi, Chennai and Mumbai to the tune of `600 crore.
With over 13 cases of cheating registered against him, he had opened up four companies – M/s Merit Resort Pvt. Ltd, M/s Aura Institutions Pvt. Ltd, M/s HVR Pvt. Ltd and M/s Edutech Pvt. Ltd. He used to funnel illicit money earned, offering an exorbitant amount as rental to the victims and lure them into parting with their lease deeds. Mr Reddy paid them via postdated cheques in return for their lease. Later, he would approach various banks and ask for loans against the property by providing the banks with forged leases.
Soon, Mr Reddy became a
To mislead the police, the sports enthusiast carefully documented all his sports events on YouTube through his official sporting channel, HVR Sports
Owned a fleet of luxury cars like Ferrari California, Audis and a Maserati Quattroporte
known name in the corporate world. In order to stop the eyes rolling, the trickster began investing in sports and financed several sporting events.
He gave sponsorships to several promising athletes from Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.
To mislead the police, the sports enthusiast carefully documented all his sports events on YouTube through his official sporting channel, HVR Sports. Mr Reddy, according to the investigators, was a familiar face of many sporting events and used to hobnob with celebrities and various political leaders.
Mr Reddy’s popularity skyrocketed in 2015 when he co-hosted the Baroda Cup Polo tournament, in which the Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson and many political leaders from Lutyens Delhi had shown up.
After hosting such high profile events, Reddy started to attract attention. To mould his image into that of a philanthropist, he turned to sports like Golf. For his unrequited love for sports, using the money he earned, he purchased a fleet of luxury cars like the Ferrari California, which costs `4.5 crore, Audis and a Maserati Quattroporte worth `3 crore.
The man had to end his high-flying life after the vigilance department arrested him on Friday when Reddy had come for a hearing regarding one of his cheating cases.
Mr Reddy’s serial cheating cases cropped up when the vigilance department, working on several cases of proclaimed offenders, learnt that Mr Reddy was a proclaimed offender in a case lodged in Janakpuri. The court rejected an anticipatory bail application when the Barakhamba Road branch of Kotak Mahindra bank complained that Mr Reddy had fraudulently obtained three different PAN cards and two passports.