Man on run for 20 years arrested by CBI for bank fraud

HYDERABAD: On the run for 20 years, a man has been arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with a bank fraud case.

The proclaimed offender, V Chalapathi Rao, managed to evade the police by frequently changing his identity and location. He even became a self-styled seer. In 2002, the CBI had filed a case against him for allegedly defrauding SBI of `50 lakh. Chalapathi, a former computer operator, reportedly fabricated quotations from electronic shops and created fake salary certificates in the names of his family members, misappropriating the proceeds of the crime.

Following the investigation, the CBI filed two chargesheets in December 2004. Chalapathi had been on the run since July 2004. His wife, also an accused in the case, initially lodged a missing person complaint at Kamatipura police station. Seven years later, she filed a petition in a civil court to have him declared dead, and the Hyderabad civil court issued an order in her favour. She obtained a stay from the Telangana High Court to attach her husband’s property.

In 2013, the CBI split the case and declared Chalapathi a proclaimed offender. Investigations revealed that Chalapathi had fled to Salem, changed his name to M Vineet Kumar, obtained an Aadhaar number, and married another woman in 2007. His second wife informed the CBI that he maintained contact with his son from his first marriage.

When the CBI attempted to locate him, Chalapathi fled Salem in 2014 and moved to Bhopal where he worked as a loan recovery agent, before relocating to Rudrapur in Uttarakhand to work in a school. He continued to evade capture, moving to an ashram in Aurangabad in 2016, where he changed his name to Swamy Vidhitatmanand Teertha and obtained another Aadhaar card. It was later discovered that he had allegedly defrauded the ashram of `70 lakh before fleeing in 2021.

Chalapathi then moved to Bharatpur in Rajasthan and later to Tirunelveli in July 2024 to stay with one of his disciples. “During this period, he changed contact numbers more than 8-10 times. It was also gathered that Chalapathi was planning to escape to Sri Lanka by sea route,” the CBI officials said.