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

Pune: 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 IITB, 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 to police custody till September 28.