FRAUD SAYS SHE WAS UNABLE TO PAY INVESTORS

Hyderabad: TV artiste Battula Vijaya Rani, who was arrested by the Central

Crime Station police, confessed that she had incurred

losses in the micro-finance chit fund run by her and had absconded as she could not pay back her financers and

investors. To pay her investors, she had borrowed money from financiers at high interest rates. As the interest rates were too high, she could not make the payments and was thus forced to disappear. She alleged that she had been threat

ened by the financiers. The police arrested B. Vijaya Rani and her associates — her sister V. Sudhalata, son Chaitanya, daughter-in-law Revathi, B. Saran Kumar, J. Hari Babu, K. Mallesh Goud

and Y. Sittaiah Srinivas. The 50-year-old actress, who has acted in various

soaps and movies, had developed contacts among

various artistes. Taking advantage of this, she started a chit fund — which is illegal — by making them members or investors. She collected about 2.5 crore from the investors, mostly TV artistes. According to G. Pala Raju, deputy commissioner of police, CCS, detec

tive department, though Vijaya Rani initially paid the investors, she had not done

so recently. She had borrowed 1.5 crore, at interest rates ranging from 3 per cent to 20 per cent, from various financiers in the market. She would pay interest of up to 3,500 per day to the financiers. As it was getting difficult to pay both the investors and the financiers, she disappeared.

While Vijaya Rani and her family members would collect the money, the others helped her in disposing her

properties.