Bank Fraudster Declared Dead by Court Arrested by CBI After 20 Yrs

Hyderabad: V Chalapathi Rao, a bank fraudster who was declared dead a few years ago by a court in Hyderabad was arrested by the CBI after 20 years.

According to a CBI press release, V Chalapathi Rao dodged arrest by continuously changing his identity and locations.

In May 2002, the CBI had registered a case against the accused. St that time he was serving as a computer operator at SBI Chandulal Biradari Branch, Hyderabad. It was alleged that he cheated Rs. 50 lakh from the bank on the basis of fabricated quotations of electronic shops and fake salary certificates created in the names of his family members and close associates.

When the CBI filed two chargesheets against him, he went missing since 2004.

His wife, who is also an accused in the fraud case moved the Civil Court to declare the absconding accused as dead, seven years after he allegedly went missing. The civil court in Hyderabad also declared the accused dead.

Although the accused constantly changed locations, contact numbers and identity, the CBI continued to track him and arrested him from a village in Tamil Nadu.

According to the CBI, the accused escaped to Salem and married a lady there in 2007 by changing his name as M. Vineet Kumar. From his second wife, the CBI got information that he was in contact with his son from the first marriage.

In 2014 he left Salem and started staying in Bhopal serving as a loan recovery agent. He then shifted to Rudrapur in Uttarakhand to work in a school.

By the time the CBI officials reached Rudrapur in 2016, he had escaped from there to an Ashram in Verul village, Aurangabad changing his name to Swamy Vidhitatmanand Teertha.

He allegedly cheated the Ashram to the tune of Rs. 70 lakh and escaped to Bharatpur in Rajasthan. He stayed there till July 8, 2024.

He then left Bharatpur to stay in Tirunelveli with one of his disciples.

During this period, he changed contact numbers about 10 times and was planning to escape to Sri Lanka by sea route.

CBI officials arrested him on August 4 from Narsinganallur village in Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu.