Fraudulent family cooling heels in jail

The couple and their children were involved in over dozens of cheating and bank fraud cases

A family of professional cheats is languishing in the Central Prison for duping several people and banks of crores of rupees.

Their penchant for a lavish lifestyle and the love for money inevitably led them to con gullible people in Karnataka, Chennai and Andhra Pradesh.

The family Hemalatha (58), her husband Prabhakar and their sons Aravind (25), and Ajai (21) hail from Chennai and were involved in over a dozen cases of cheating.


Hemalatha and her college-drop-out sons have duped several people and banks in the state and in Chennai and Andhra Pradesh

Although they were managed to escape arrest for five years, they were finally nabbed by the Hennur police.

Prabhakar was arrested by crime branch sleuths two months ago. He had availed a loan of Rs 1 crore from a city based nationalised bank about a decade ago on the pretext of setting up an IT firm in the city.

Soon after the money was released, he vanished with the amount. Similarly, Hemalatha duped several banks by obtaining credit cards on fake documents.

She, along with her two college-drop-out sons used to approach owners of fully furnished vacant apartments and take it on rent for few days. After taking possession, they would immediately prepare fake ownership documents and sell the apartment at throwaway prices.

"The papers looked so authentic that no one would suspect that it could be forged," said PI Hanumanthraya.
He added, "Hemalatha would even take buyers on house visits to gain their confidence. Once the deal was finalised, the trio would hoodwink the clients and escape with the money."

Wait and watch
The trio cheated Krishna Reddy and his friend Venkatesh of Rs 50 lakh by promising to sell them a house in Ramamurthy Nagar.

The victims came to the apartment with the cash and were about to proceed to the sub-registrar's office for registration, when the trio asked them to leave the cash in the apartment citing security reasons.

Enroute to the sub-registrar office, Hemalatha requested Reddy to take her to a hospital in Indira Nagar, so she could visit a relative admitted there.
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Reddy waited in the hospital lobby for an hour and when the trio did not turn up, he checked the hospital premises.

Finding them missing, he rushed back to their house to discover that they had left the flat with the money. Upon enquiring with the watchman, he learned that the trio has taken the flat on rent for only three days and vacated a few hours before.

DCP Chandrashekhar said, "Hemalatha had taken a bank loan on some land in Nanjangud. While she submitting original documents in the bank, she made fake papers of the same plot and sold it for Rs 20 lakh."

Police are currently verifying her bank accountu00a0 and are searching her house in Chennai hoping to find large amount of cash, which she is reportedly hiding.