Hyderabad: A 29-year-old person from Andhra Pradesh has been arrested by the Kukatpally Housing Board (KPHB) police for impersonating Dr Vikranth Reddy, son of Telugu Desam Party (TDP) MP, defrauding a woman.
The complaint was made by a resident of Sitara Women’s PG, a hostel opposite the JNTU bus stop. The accused, police said, visited the hostel several times, posing as Dr Vikranth Reddy, who is a neurosurgeon and jewellery shopkeeper.
He first posed as being there to assist his cousin, who resides in the hostel, and later started visiting regularly, claiming he did so to assist students and “taste the food.”
Winning over the confidence of the complainant, the accused persuaded her to surrender a four-tola gold chain, supposedly for remaking at his “jewellery shop” in Jubilee Hills. He subsequently asked for more gold, for which the woman paid Rs 55,000 online and Rs 45,000 in cash. After he started avoiding her calls, she reported this to the police.
Investigations showed that the individual is a repeat offender with a 14-case criminal history in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Offences under which he has been charged include theft, robbery, cheating, and sexual assault, both under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
Though he claimed to be a doctor at Apollo Hospital, police verified that he holds no medical degree and has consistently adopted false identities to scam people. The authorities have also appealed to anyone else who might have been cheated by the accused to come forward.
