Inter-state criminal who posed as PA to minister nabbed

: A notorious inter-state criminal, who posed as a Personal Assistant to a minister and reportedly duped several gullible people of crores of Rupees, was arrested from a village on Wednesday, a top police official here said.

Nellore district Superintendent of Police Aishwarya Rastogi said a special team nabbed Vamsi Krishna Reddy at a village following a complaint lodged by Industries Minister Mekapati Goutham Reddys aide.

The ministers aide complained that Reddy had been cheating public in Nellore and Amaravati, posing as PA to the minister.

The SP said Reddy was involved in several grave criminal cases, including murder, dacoity, rape and cheating in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

"Vamsi confessed that he created fake Aadhar cards with fake addresses and duped gullible people using the names of influential people.

Three rich people from Visakhapatnam and Hyderabad were among his victims, who paid lakhs of Rupees in cash, expecting to get some favours done, Rastogi said.

He said the quantum of money involved had not yet been established as the investigation was continuing.

Vamsi also confessed to having killed a man in Hyderabad last year after kidnapping him from Vijayawada with the help of three others, the SP said.

The man, Harshavardhan, had earlier given information to police about Reddy's involvement in a kidnap and robbery case in Nellore city.

A car and two mobile phones were recovered from Reddy.

"The investigation is continuing and we are trying to get details of his other victims. Action is also being taken to book him under the Preventive Detention Act, Rastogi added.