A shocking case has come to light from Tamil Nadu. A man who was declared dead by the court almost two decades ago was arrested by the CBI on Sunday after almost 22 years from Narasinganallur village in Tirunelveli. A man named V Chalapathi Rao is accused of cheating a bank and disappearing with Rs 50 lakh. When the investigating agency arrested him, he was hiding in the guise of a sadhu in a village in Tamil Nadu. But he kept dodging the investigating agencies by changing his disguise for two decades.
The whole case starts from May 1, 2002. The CBI had registered a case against V Chalapathi Rao for the first time. Rao was a computer operator at Chandulal Baradari branch of SBI in Hyderabad at that time. He was accused of defrauding the bank of Rs 50 lakh, but as soon as the police reached to arrest him, he disappeared. His wife registered a missing person’s case at Kamatipura police station on July 10, 2004. Then in 2011, she filed a petition in the court that since her husband has been missing for 7 years, he should be declared dead.
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How was the conspiracy done
Rao had allegedly taken loans from electronics shops by submitting fake quotations and fake salary documents prepared in the names of his family members and close associates to the bank and then disappeared. The CBI filed two chargesheets against him in December 2004, but Rao had gone missing before that.
Declared dead by court
The CBI was after him for 20 years. The CBI informed that Rao first fled to Salem in Tamil Nadu. There he changed his name to M Vineet Kumar in 2007 and married another woman. With the help of his new wife, he also obtained an Aadhaar number. During this time, CBI officials came to know that Rao was in touch with his son from his first marriage. But as soon as the investigating agency reached to arrest him in 2014, he left Salem without telling anyone. From there he reached Bhopal, where he started working as a recovery agent. Then from there he went to Rudrapur in Uttarakhand, where he worked in a school.
then escaped from there
When a CBI team reached Rudrapur, Rao fled from there in 2016. When the CBI contacted Google with an email ID and Aadhaar number in the name of ‘M Vineet Kumar’, it was found that Rao had reached an ashram in Verul village of Aurangabad. Rao had changed his name there to Swami Vidhitatman and Teerth. There he got a second Aadhaar card made, but in December 2021 also he committed fraud there. He allegedly duped the ashram manager of Rs 70 lakh and left the ashram…
kept dodging
After this, Rao went to Bharatpur in Rajasthan. He was staying there till July 8, 2024. Then he left Bharatpur and reached Tirunelveli to stay with one of his disciples. The CBI received reliable information that the accused was planning to flee to Sri Lanka via sea. But before he could succeed in his plan, the officials traced his location. He was arrested from Narasinganallur village in Tirunelveli on Sunday, August 4.
Tags: CBI investigation, sadhu saint
FIRST PUBLISHED : August 6, 2024, 14:49 IST
