Explained: Telugu Akademi Funds scam

The arrested were identified as Segoori Ramesh, accounts officers of Telugu Akademi, M Sadhana, Branch Manager of Canara bank along with Chunduri Venkata Koti Sai Kumar, the mastermind of the fraud, Nanduri Venkata Raman, Venkateshwar Rao a self-proclaimed RMP Doctor and Somashekar.

The police said that Sai Kumar was previously involved in AP Minority Welfare Society withdrawal of FDR's investigated by CID in 2012, AP Housing Board Scam of nearly 6 Crores in 2015 investigated by CBI, and 25 Crores FDR fraud of Northern Coalfields in Chennai investigated by CBI. Also, Venkat Raman was coaccused in the 2012 AP Minority Welfare Society in the FDR case.

According to police the mastermind, Sai Kumar was in debt due to certain investments in real estate. "Since he was aware of the modalities of FDR withdrawals, due to his involvement in similar frauds in the past, he contacted one of his friends who was an agent working in the field of bank deposits and loans. This person brought him into contact with an unknown person who he said will arrange fixed deposits for him," said police.

Later, Sai Kumar got in contact with Ramesh, the accounts officer of the Telugu Academy. Whenever Telugu Akademi is required to create a Fixed Deposit, Sai Kumar would be contacted through the agent, and in turn, Sai Kumar will send Dr. Venkat or Somashekar to collect the cheque from Ramesh. "After the cheque and request letters were collected, Venkat Ramana and Sai Kumar with the help of their associates would create fake FDRs and fake request letters. The fake request letters would be sent to the bank with the different amounts and time periods for the Fixed Deposits. The fake FDRs would be printed and sent back to the Telugu Academy," said police.

The bank managers Shaik Mastanvali of Union Bank of India who was arrested on October 1 and M Sadhana of Canara Bank would inform the UTR numbers of Fixed Deposits to Venkat Raman and his associates who would use it on the fake FDRs.

Thereafter fake FDRs were again created for withdrawal of Fixed Deposit amounts from the concerned bank and this would be sent to the concerned bank managers. The withdrawals would be done in favor of AP Merchantile Co-operative Credit Society where the society would withdraw the amount in cash and this cash would be collected by either Somashekar or Dr. Venkat.

Police said that the fake account of Telugu Academy in AP Merchantile Co-operative Society was created with the conveyance of Managing Director Satyanarayana using fake ID proofs. In the opening of the account, Somashekar posed as Director of Telugu Academy. According to police, all the associated persons shared the misappropriated amount depending on their role. The largest share was that of Saikumar and Somashekar.

Earlier, police have arrested Shaik Mastanvali, Chief Manager, Union Bank of India, Karwan branch, Hyderabad, Satyanarayana, Chairman-Managing Director of A.P. Merchantile Co-operative Credit Society Limited, V. Padmavathi, Manager (Operations) of A.P. Merchantile Co-operative Credit Society Limited, and Syed Moiuddin Relationship Manager of A.P. Merchantile Co-operative Credit Society Limited.