Three held for duping artist of Rs 54,000

Three persons were today arrested for allegedly cheating a mime artist into paying them over Rs 54,000 on the promise of arranging a show for him in South Africa.
Market Intelligence Team of Central Crime Station (CCS), a wing of Hyderabad Police, apprehended the accused- D Ashok Kumar, S Nuka Raju and C Muthyal Rao.
The trio conspired with prime accused Vamsi Singavarapu, who is absconding along with three other accused, and duped the mime artist of Rs 54,268, police said.
"The offenders contacted the victim over his mobile and lured him that they will arrange his show in a residential school in South Africa as part of the annual day celebrations. They also assured him of arranging his visa and asked him to pay the visa processing fee of Rs 9,268," Joint Commissioner of Police (Detective Department) T Prabhakar Rao said.

Trusting the offenders, the artist deposited the amount in the bank account given by the accused on June 19.
"Further the offenders fraudulently trapped the victim towards buying a car for an amount of Rs 76,878 as a good-will. The victim then deposited Rs 45,000 as advance amount in the bank account. Thus the victim was cheated by the offenders of Rs 54,268," the JCP said.

During the interrogation, the arrested accused revealed that Vamsi contacted artists via internet and over their mobile phones, telling them that he would arrange shows and obtain visas for them for their visits abroad.

"The accused used to collect amount from the victims as visa processing fee. He also collected money from them by offering to sell cars," the senior police officer said.
Two of the victims have approached the police so far and inquiries are on to know the details of other victims, who were cheated by the offenders in a similar manner, Rao added.