The man has cheated about 60 companies of nearly Rs 3 crore, police said. (Representational)
Mumbai police has arrested a 28-year-old man for allegedly duping a city-based electronics retail chain of Rs 12 lakh by impersonating Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, an official said on Tuesday.
Accused Nagraju Budumuru was recently taken into custody from the Srikakulam district in the southern state, nearly two months after a complaint was filed in the city, the official said.
Budumuru has cheated about 60 companies of nearly Rs 3 crore using the same method, he said.
In December last year, an employee from the managing director's office of the electronics seller received a call from a man claiming to be the personal assistant of the Andhra Chief Minister. The caller said the Chief Minister wanted to have a word with the MD, said the anti-cybercrime official.
The unsuspecting staffer shared the MD's mobile number. The accused then allegedly contacted the MD claiming to be Andhra Chief Minister and sought Rs 12 lakh from the electronics retail chain towards sponsorship of the kit of a cricketer, the official said.
The accused also sent fake documents in the name of the Andhra Cricket Association and an email id claiming that it belongs to the cricketer and got the amount released, the official said.
After learning that they had been duped, the electronics seller filed a police complaint in January, prompting Mumbai police's cyber cell to launch a probe and subsequently track down the accused to Andhra's Srikakulam district bordering Odisha.
Police have also found that accused Budumuru faces at least 30 similar cases in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, the official said, adding that they have recovered Rs 7.6 lakh from his bank accounts.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)