Finance firm hoodwinks people

Visakhapatnam: A chit fund operator wound up operation leaving the investors in the lurch. According to police, the accused had embezzled the chit money to the tune of Rs 4 crore.

The accused was identified as Kotteyada Demudu (42), a resident of Butchirajupalem, and was running micro finance and chit business for the past six years. He developed good relationship with the locals and earned their good will.

His wife was working as a teacher in a private school in the same locality. In the meantime, he started chit business and not only collected money but also took money at high rate of interest. According to Demudu, he was supposed to give the chit money in the first week of January.

As a part of his plan, Demudu’s wife resigned to the teacher’s post in the third week of December but not disclosed it. The accused also took transfer certificates to his two children from the school. On December 24, the family packed all the important items and informed the house owner that they are going for South India tour and left the house and did not turn up till date.

Ahead of Sankranti, the stakeholders started enquiring about his whereabouts. As his mobile phones are not working, some of the victims rushed to the school where the accused wife was working. The school management informed that she had resigned. The victims also rushed to the schools where the accused children were studying and stunned after the managements informed that they took TCs and left the school.

Later, they came to know that Demudu took them for a ride and lodged a complaint with Airport Police Station. When contacted Airport Circle Inspector Prabhakar said that they registered a case against Demudu and launched a man-hunt to nab the accused.