Former Ranji cricketer arrested for duping 60 companies for INR 3 crore by posing as Andhra CM's Personal Assistant

Impersonating as Andhra Pradesh CM YS Jagan Mohan Reddy's Personal Assistant, former Ranji cricketer Nagraju Budumuru has cheated 60 companies for INR 3 crore. Notably, last year, the 28-year-old called up an employee of city electronics posing as Reddy’s personal assistant and asking him to sponsor Ricky Bhui, who has done very well for Andhra in recent past.

The electronics company eventually ended up paying INR 12 lakhs after Budumuru emailed forged and fake documents to show his connection with National Cricket Academy (NCA). Now, upon registering a complaint, police started tracking down the money and eventually arrested Budumuru from his native place.

“After receiving the complaint, our team began tracking the money that was supposed to be given as sponsorship. The money trail pointed out to Budumuru. We nabbed him from his native place — Yavaripetta in Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh earlier this week,” Dr Balsing Rajput, DCP (cyber-crime) was quoted as saying by the Hindustan Times.

The hunger for a luxurious life leads Budumuru behind bars 

Notably, police have recovered approximately INR 7.6 lakh after a thorough investigation and interrogation. In a report published by the cyber crime department, it is also stated that after not being able to perform as per expectations, Budumuru hit the rock bottom in 2018 and that is when he started missing his luxurious lifestyle. In order to keep up with it, Budumuru started duping people.

“When he stopped doing well on the field after 2018, he started missing the luxurious lifestyle that he had become used to. That was his primary motive behind conning people under various pretexts,” an official from the cyber police was quoted as saying in the report.

After showing a lot of promise in his early days as a cricketer, Budumuru was called up to play in the Ranji Trophy for Andhra Pradesh in 2014. He spent a couple of years with the state squad but couldn’t justify his position. He was also part of Sunrisers Hyderabad squad in the Indian Premier League but never got a chance to make his debut in the cash-rich league.

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