Hyderabad police on Tuesday booked Bharatiya Janata Party General Secretary P Muralidhar Rao and eight others for allegedly cheating and collecting Rs 2.17 crore using forged signatures of Union Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
A criminal case was registered at Saroornagar police station based on a court-referred complaint from T Pravarna Reddy, wife of realtor Mahipal Reddy from Hyderabad.
In the case, complainant said the suspects offered her husband a Central government post and collected money in return. But they neither got the job, nor a refund.
In her complaint, Talla Pravarna Reddy said one of her relatives, Eshwar Reddy, claimed he was close to prominent BJP leaders and the “shadow” of Muralidhar Rao, Krishna Kishore, who could get a nominated post at any Central government department.
They allegedly promised to make Talla Pravarna Reddy’s husband Mahipal Reddy the nominated chairperson of Pharma Exil, which functions under the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industries, if they paid money.
The accused then allegedly collected Rs 2.17 crore from the Reddys and showed them the copy of an appointment letter, purportedly signed by the then Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
Police booked the nine accused under Sections 406 (criminal breach of trust) 420 (cheating), 468, 471 (forgery), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the the Indian Penal Code(IPC) and section 156 (3) of CrPC.
However, TOI quoted Rao as saying that all the charges against him are false and that he “had nothing to do with the issue”.
