NTPC, Ramagundam ex-AE caught by Khammam police for fraudulent activities

Khammam police arrested a former NTPC Ramagundam employee for allegedly cheating people by posing as a Finance Department official. He reportedly collected money through fake promises of loans and government scheme funds, using QR code-based transactions to defraud victims

Khammam: A former employee of NTPC Ramagundam, who allegedly harboured deep resentment towards political leaders and swindled huge amounts of money by targeting them after losing his job in a bribery case, was arrested by Khammam police.

The accused, Thota Balaji Naidu of Kirlampudi village in Kakinada district of Andhra Pradesh, was arrested by Raghunathapalem police and sent to judicial remand. He allegedly duped a Khammam resident, Vadlakunta Siva, of Rs 2.50 lakh using QR code-based transactions.

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Khammam (Town) ACP SV Ramanamurthy said that Balaji Naidu had previously worked as an Assistant Engineer (AE) at NTPC and was dismissed from service after being caught red-handed by the ACB and CBI while allegedly accepting bribes from the personal assistant of a political leader.

Since his dismissal, he had allegedly been making phone calls to political leaders across the two Telugu states, whom he believed were responsible for the loss of his job, falsely identifying himself as an “Additional Secretary in the Finance Department”. He allegedly collected money from Siva by promising to arrange a loan of Rs 10 lakh.

His modus operandi was to inform political leaders that funds had been allocated to their respective constituencies under schemes such as the ‘Prime Minister’s Viksit Bharat Rozgar Yojana’ and the ‘Chief Minister’s Unemployment Scheme’, and instruct them to submit applications from their constituencies.

The accused allegedly claimed that a challan fee of Rs 2,500 per applicant was required. By providing a QR code scanner, he would induce them to transfer the amount to his account, thereby fraudulently extracting money from them.

Balaji Naidu was detained under the PD Act by Banjara Hills police in 2016 and sent to Chanchalguda Jail. Similarly, in 2025, he was again imprisoned in connection with a case in Andhra Pradesh, where he allegedly defrauded several individuals to extract money.