Hyderabad: CBI arrest a man who was on run for 20 years

V Chalapathi Rao, during his job as a computer operator at State Bank of India, Chandulal Baradari branch in Hyderabad misappropriated an amount of around Rs. 50 lakh and escaped.

Hyderabad: A man who was on the run for the past two decades after cheating a national bank of Rs. 50 lakh was finally caught by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). He was produced in the court and remanded.

V Chalapathi Rao, during his job as a computer operator at State Bank of India, Chandulal Baradari branch in Hyderabad misappropriated an amount of around Rs. 50 lakh and escaped. To avoid detection, Chalapathi Rao kept moving from one city to another and even changed identities and profession on multiple occasions.

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According to the CBI, Chalapathi Rao fabricated quotations of electronic shops and created fake salary certificates in the names of his family members and misappropriated the amount.

After a case was registered against him, Chalapathi Rao escaped. “To evade arrest, during the two decades he had changed his names and mobile phones. He was always on the run and did not stay for long at a particular place,” said the officials.

After he had gone missing, his wife had made a complaint at Kamatipura police station and a case was registered. She had also filed a petition in Civil Court appealing to the court to declare him as dead.

Chalapathi had fled to Salem and married a woman in 2007 by changing his name to M. Vineet Kumar and obtained Aadhaar card as well. Through his second wife, CBI got information that he was in touch with his son out of his first marriage.

However, in 2014 he fled from Salem abruptly and reached Bhopal where he worked as loan recovery agent and later shifted to Rudrapur in Uttarakhand, where he worked in a school, said the officials.

When the investigating team reached to arrest him at Rudrapur, he had already fled from the place in 2016. With the help of email IDs and Aadhaar details, investigators found out that Chalapathi Rao shifted to an Ashram, in Verul village, Aurangabad.

It was further revealed that the man had again changed his name as Swamy Vidhitatmanand Teertha and also obtained Aadhaar Card. Subsequently he shifted to Bharatpur (Rajasthan) as Vidhitatmanand Teertha and stayed there till 8 July, 2024. He thereafter left Bharatpur and reached Tirunelveli to stay with one of his disciples where he was caught on Sunday.