Pune varsity duped of Rs 2.46 crore, UK-educated engineer held

Pune Police have arrested a Telangana-based electronics engineer, who holds a doctorate degree from a UK-based university, for an alleged online fraud with a private university of Rs 2.46 crore, officials said.

The university lodged a complaint with the police in the first week of September that the institution was allegedly swindled for Rs 2.46 crore by an online fraudster who posed as a professor of the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.

The fraudster promised the Pune-based varsity officials that he would help them get a project from IIT-Bombay, a police release said on Wednesday.

The alleged online fraud took place between July 25 and August 26 this year, wherein the fraudster, by posing as the professor of IIT-B, cheated the varsity by making them transfer Rs 2.46 crore into different accounts, it said.

A team of cyber crime police station initiated a probe into it and traced the suspect, identified as Seetaiah Kilaru (34), a resident of Yapral in Hyderabad, Telangana, the police said.

“He is a mastermind in the case and was arrested on September 21. The accused is an electronics & telecommunication engineer from Telangana and holds a PhD from a UK-based university. During the investigation, he told us that he had cleared UPSC’s prelim and mains examination in 2019-20,” a police official said.

After being arrested, Kilaru was produced before a court which remanded him in police custody till September 28.