Software employee saw ₹1.44 crore in his account, lost ₹22.8 lakh; two held in Andhra’s Nandyal
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Fraudsters lured a software employee into a fake investment group and sent an auto driver a malicious file in two cyber fraud cases cracked by the Koilkuntla police. Image for representational purpose only. | Photo Credit: napong rattanaraktiya
Dannada Mallikarjuna, a software employee from Kanala village in Sanjamala mandal, put ₹22.8 lakh into a stock-market group he found through an advertisement on social media. His account showed a balance of ₹1,44,83,796. When he asked for the money, he was told to pay ₹25 lakh in taxes first.
That was the moment he knew. He called the National Cyber Crime Helpline (1930), then lodged a complaint at the Sanjamala police station, and a case was registered in January 2025. On Thursday (September 17, 2026), the Koilkuntla police arrested two men in his case and in a second one, and recovered ₹25 lakh in cash, four mobile phones and a laptop.
Superintendent of Police Suneel Sheoran, announcing the arrests before the media, said the accused were Kolusu Srikanth of Vizianagaram town and Sanapala Sai Prakash Naidu of Vijayawada.
Mr. Mallikarjuna, the police said, saw an advertisement related to the stock market on a social media platform on December 2, 2024. On opening it, the fraudsters convinced him that joining a group named “Arya Project Pulse XB” on another social media site would allow him to invest in the stock market and earn high profits.
“They created a dedicated investment account for the complainant and had him transfer money to various bank accounts on different dates starting from December 2, 2024. In this manner, the complainant invested a total of ₹22,80,000,” the SP said. The fraudsters then displayed false details indicating the ₹1.44 crore balance.
The accused collect bank current accounts from individuals and hand over the associated SIM cards and account numbers to the other members of the gang, the SP said. They run advertisements on social media promoting investment schemes through new apps, and when interested individuals respond, they are added to different social media groups, informed about investment opportunities and persuaded to deposit money into accounts controlled by the fraudsters. The victims are shown fake returns indicating their money has doubled, only to realise the scam later.
In the second case, K. Charan Raj, an auto driver of Revanuru village, is the son of Kodavati Subbarayudu, an RTC driver who is at home because of ill health.
“To transfer the job to his son (the complainant), RTC officials required the full repayment of a previously taken loan. On December 23, 2025, the complainant obtained a loan of ₹5,24,000 by pledging gold ornaments at a nationalised bank in Kovelkuntla,” the SP said.
Soon after the amount was credited to his account, the fraudsters sent an APK file, an app installation file for Android phones, to his social media account. When he opened it, his mobile phone was hacked and the funds in his account were siphoned off, the SP said.
The Koilkuntla police investigated the two cases, traced the accused and arrested them on Thursday, seizing the cash, laptop and mobile phones.
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