Youth hoodwinks traders, lands behind bars

​Hyderabad: An engineering graduate from Khammam was arrested by the Jubilee Hills police on Thursday on charges of cheating several businessmen on pretext of developing e-commerce websites. Jubilee Hills inspector S Venkat Reddy told media that they received a complaint from one Ravi Teja, owner of a private company, stating that he had received a call from one Chandrashekar, who claimed to be a web designer and offered low-cost services.

On August 17, he went to a restaurant to discuss the business deal. After discussion, Chandrashekar borrowed Ravi’s phone to make an emergency call and from there he escaped with the phone, the inspector said. During investigation, the accused was identified as Chegondi Chandrashekar (25), a native of Khammam. He earlier worked as a civil engineer with a company and later quit the job. He was habituated to luxurious lifestyle and being jobless, he started cheating people to make easy money, according to the police.

Explaining his modus operandi, the inspector said the accused targeted newly-set up software firms and offered low-cost services of making e-commerce websites and their maintenance. He used to call the clients to restaurants for finalise the business deal.

During discussion, Chandrashekar used to borrow the client’s mobile phone pretending that his phone was not functioning properly. Within minutes, he used to flee from the spot, the inspector said. Three such cases were registered in various police stations including one in Visakhapatnam, where the accused followed similar modus operandi, the inspector said adding that the accused was nabbed using technical evidences and was remanded to judicial custody.