Hyderabad: Man held for cheating people

M Balaji Naidu (35), was arrested for similar offences earlier also in Bengaluru, Vijayawada and Tirupathi.

Hyderabad: A computer science engineer who duped around 200 people in different States on pretext of buying their mobile phones was arrested by the Punjagutta police on Monday.

M Balaji Naidu (35), a resident of Tirupathi in Andhra Pradesh, graduated from S V University, in computer engineering. Since 2018, he has been targeting people who prefer online classified sites for buying or selling their articles.

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“Balaji would contact people who were intending to sell their mobile phones. After sourcing the pictures, he would pose as seller of the gadget and post the same photographs of the mobile phone on different account on the online classified sites and collect money from the prospective buyers. He had cheated several people to tune of Rs. 60 lakh in this manner,” said ACP Punjagutta, S Mohan Kumar.

On a complaint, the police had laid a trap for him and caught him. The man was arrested for similar offences earlier also in Bengaluru, Vijayawada and Tirupathi.