In a major breakthrough, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested V Chalapathi Rao, a swindler who evaded law enforcement for over two decades. Rao, who has been using multiple fake identities, forging new Aadhar cards, living in various states to evade detection, was finally caught in Tamil Nadu while posing as a spiritual guru.
He has allegedly worked as a computer operator and loan recovery agent in the past, using his skills to further his fraudulent activities. The CBI received a tip-off about Rao’s presence in Tamil Nadu, leading to a swift operation that culminated in his arrest. Rao is likely to be charged with multiple counts of fraud, forgery, and other criminal offenses.
Rao was arrested on Sunday in Narsinganallur village, Tirunelveli, before he could flee to another country, officials said on Monday.
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What is case all about?
The CBI opened a case against Rao on May 1, 2002. At the time, he was a computer operator at SBI’s Chandulal Biradari branch in Hyderabad. Rao was accused of stealing Rs 50 lakh from the bank using fake electronic shop quotations and fabricated salary certificates in the names of his family and close associates.
‘Family tried to declare him dead ‘
Over the past 20 years, Rao’s family tried to have him declared dead, seven years after he went missing. Meanwhile, Rao created an Aadhaar card under the name M Vineet Kumar and remarried in Salem, officials said.
His first wife, also an accused in the fraud case, filed an FIR at Kamatipura Police Station on July 10, 2004. She also petitioned the Civil Court to declare Rao deceased after he had been missing for seven years. A decree was issued by the Hyderabad Civil Court, according to a CBI spokesperson.
He was later declared a proclaimed offender, according to officials.
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Rao’s second wife informed the CBI that he had been in contact with his son from his first marriage. However, before the agency could locate him, Rao fled to Bhopal in 2014, where he worked as a loan recovery agent. He then moved to Rudrapur in Uttarakhand, where he took a job at a school, the CBI said in a statement.
In a cat-and-mouse chase, the CBI team tracked him to Rudrapur but found he had already fled Uttarakhand in 2016. The agency then sought assistance from Gmail’s department, which handles requests from law enforcement, using the Aadhaar card information for M Vineet Kumar.
The CBI later discovered that Rao had moved to an ashram in Verul village, Aurangabad, but had obtained a new Aadhaar card under a different alias, complicating identification. In Aurangabad, he lived as Swami Vidhitatmanand Teertha and allegedly defrauded the ashram of Rs 70 lakh before fleeing to Bharatpur, Rajasthan, in December 2021. There, he continued to pose as an ascetic until July 8, 2024.
Rao reportedly changed phone numbers around 8-10 times during this period and had even planned to escape to Sri Lanka by sea. Officials said he fled Bharatpur and reached Narsinganallur village in Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu, to stay with a disciple and work on his plan to move to Sri Lanka.
However, his plans were thwarted when the CBI received information about his location and arrested him in the village.