Four arrested for misappropriating CMRF funds worth ₹8.71 lakh using forged cheques

The Jubilee Hills police have arrested two persons and launched a manhunt for other accused in connection with a fraud involving the misappropriation of funds sanctioned under the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund (CMRF).

The accused are alleged to have forged documents and siphoned off government funds intended for financially distressed applicants. The total amount fraudulently withdrawn is said to be ₹8.71 lakh.

The arrested duo were identified as Jogula Naresh Kumar, 42, a grocery store owner from Mettuguda, and Balagoni Venkatesh, 37, working as an office subordinate at the Mandal Parishad Development Officer (MPDO) office in Nalgonda. Two others, Korlapati Vamshi, 24, a car driver from Khammam, and Pulipaka Omkar, 34, a driver from Godavarikhani, remain absconding, along with other suspected accomplices.

According to Inspector of Jubilee Hills police K.Venkateshwara Reddy, main accused Naresh Kumar had access to CMRF cheques while working at a minister’s office. “With the new government coming into power in the 2023 elections, he unlawfully retained 230 sanctioned but undistributed cheques. Nineteen of those cheques, issued to applicants who had not followed up, were allegedly deposited in forged bank accounts with similar names at the SBI branch on Road No. 5 in Jubilee Hills,” explained the officer, adding that the amount was divided among the accused.

Naresh Kumar and Venkatesh were apprehended on July 14 and remanded to judicial custody the following day. The other accused are on the run. The group is also linked to at least three earlier cases registered in 2024 at the same police station for similar offences involving forgery, cheating, criminal breach of trust and cybercrime.