CBI Captures Fugitive Declared Dead by Court in SBI Fraud Case

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has apprehended V. Chalapathi Rao, a proclaimed offender who had evaded capture for 20 years in connection with a bank fraud case. Rao had been declared deceased by a court a few years ago. According to a press release from the CBI on Monday, August 5, 2024, Rao managed to avoid arrest by frequently altering his identity and relocating.

In May 2002, the CBI registered a case against Rao, who was then employed as a computer operator at the SBI Chandulal Biradari Branch in Hyderabad. He was accused of defrauding the bank of Rs 50 lakh by using fabricated quotations from electronic shops and fake salary certificates created in the names of his family members and close associates. The CBI filed two chargesheets on December 31, 2004, but Rao had been missing since 2004.

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Rao’s wife, also an accused in the fraud case, filed a complaint with the city police and subsequently moved the Civil Court to have Rao declared deceased seven years after his disappearance. A civil court in Hyderabad eventually passed the order.

Despite Rao’s continuous efforts to evade capture by changing locations, contact numbers, and identities, the CBI persistently pursued leads and ultimately apprehended him in a village in Tamil Nadu. According to information gathered by the CBI, Rao had fled to Salem, where he married a woman in 2007 under the alias M. Vineet Kumar and obtained an Aadhaar number.

Through his second wife, the CBI learned that Rao was in contact with his son from his first marriage. However, in 2014, Rao left Salem and moved to Bhopal, where he worked as a loan recovery agent, before relocating to Rudrapur in Uttarakhand to work at a school.

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When the CBI team reached Rudrapur, they discovered that Rao had fled in 2016 and moved to an ashram in Verul village, Aurangabad. There, he assumed the identity of Swamy Vidhitatmanand Teertha and obtained another Aadhaar card. In December 2021, Rao allegedly cheated the Ashram of Rs. 70 lakh before relocating to Bharatpur (Rajasthan) as Vidhitatmanand Teertha, where he stayed until July 8 of this year. He then moved to Tirunelveli to stay with one of his disciples, during which time he changed his contact numbers about 10 times and was planning to escape to Sri Lanka by sea.

Finally, Rao was arrested on August 4 from Narsinganallur village in Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu, where he was hiding. He was presented before a local court, which remanded him until August 16.