According to a press release from the CBI on Monday, August 5, 2024, Rao avoided arrest by frequently changing his identity and locations. In May 2002, the CBI had registered a case against Rao, who was working as a computer operator at the SBI Chandulal Biradari Branch in Hyderabad.
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NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested V. Chalapathi Rao, a proclaimed offender who had been absconding for 20 years in a bank fraud case. Rao was previously declared dead by a court a few years ago.
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According to a press release from the CBI on Monday, August 5, 2024, Rao avoided arrest by frequently changing his identity and locations. In May 2002, the CBI had registered a case against Rao, who was working as a computer operator at the SBI Chandulal Biradari Branch in Hyderabad.
Rao was accused of cheating the bank out of Rs 50 lakh by fabricating quotations from electronic shops and creating fake salary certificates in the names of his family members and associates.
The CBI filed two chargesheets against Rao on December 31, 2004, but he has been missing since then. His wife, who is also an accused in the fraud case, had filed a complaint with the city police and moved the civil court to have the absconding accused declared dead, which was granted seven years after his disappearance.
However, the CBI continued to pursue the case and finally nabbed Rao in a village in Tamil Nadu. According to the CBI’s investigation, Rao had fled to Salem in 2007 and married a woman there, changing his name to M. Vineet Kumar and obtaining an Aadhaar card. He then moved to Bhopal, where he worked as a loan recovery agent, and later shifted to Rudrapur in Uttarakhand, where he worked in a school.
In 2016, Rao left Rudrapur and moved to an ashram in Verul village, Aurangabad, where he changed his name to Swamy Vidhitatmanand Teertha and obtained another Aadhaar card.
He later moved to Bharatpur, Rajasthan, and then to Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu, where he was planning to escape to Sri Lanka by sea route. Finally, he was arrested on August 4 from Narsinganallur village in Tirunelveli.
Rao was produced before a local court, which remanded him until August 16.
