A 70-year-old retired teacher from Pulivendula in Kadapa district died of a heart attack allegedly after being subjected to a digital arrest scam in which he lost ₹1.62 crore to cybercriminals.
Putlur Prakasham Reddy received a series of calls between May 27 and June 6 from fraudsters claiming to be calling from “CBI Headquarters, Mumbai”. They threatened to arrest him in connection with what they called a “money laundering case”. They showed him fabricated images of his ATM card, which was found in the house of the arrested business tycoon. According to his son Hitesh Reddy, he transferred a total of ₹1.62 crore to various accounts under duress before he suffered a heart attack.
Pulivendula police registered a case based on the complaint. Investigation revealed that the culprits funneled the money to three mules/fake accounts and later converted it to cryptocurrency. Police arrested Ajja Alli Chikkaraju Madhu (36), Roshan Ullas Vemekar (37), Suresh Sanketh Naidu (29) and Harish Srinivas (27) from Bengaluru; and Aditya Manohar (29) and Arjun Nelamakala (34) of Mandya in connection with the case.
Superintendent of Police Shelke Nachiket Vishwanath told the media that a search has been launched for an employee of a private bank accused of complicity, an auditor, a joint account holder and a resident of Delhi.
Published – 28 Nov 2025 20:19 IST
