Kothapalli Geetha was elected from the Araku parliamentary constituency in 2014. (File)
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested former Andhra Pradesh MP Kothapalli Geetha last night after she was convicted in a multi-crore bank fraud case along with her husband and two others.
She and her husband Ramakoteswara Rao allegedly cheated the Punjab National Bank (PNB) of Rs 42 crore, according to a charge sheet filed by the federal agency in 2015.
Vishveswara Infrastructure, whose managing director was Mr Rao, had taken a Rs 25 crore loan from PNB and the loan amount climbed to Rs 42 crore. On a complaint by the bank, the CBI had enquired Mr Rao and a charge sheet was filed in 2015. Ms Geetha was found to have diverted the funds from the company to another account.
After her arrest in Hyderabad, she was shifted to Bengaluru.
Ms Geetha was elected from the Araku parliamentary constituency, reserved for Scheduled Tribes (ST), in 2014 on a YSR Congress ticket. Subsequently, she was accused of fraud as she did not belong to the community. She joined the BJP in 2019.