PhD from UK, trained UPSC aspirants: 34-year-old held in Rs 2.46 crore cyber fraud targeting university in Pune

A team from the cyber crime police station launched a probe into the case. Crucial leads were obtained from the analysis of the cell numbers, email addresses and bank accounts. The investigation team zeroed in on Seetaiah Kilaru (34), a resident of Yapral in Hyderabad, Telangana. After the investigation revealed that Kilaru was the mastermind of the fraud, a team closed in on him and arrested him from Yapral on September 21. The investigation team secured his transit remand from a court in Hyderabad and brought him to Pune. A court in Pune has remanded him to police custody till September 28. Police have seized from his possession 10 debit cards, 13 bank passbooks and 15 cheque books along with gold purchase receipts, phones, laptops and two cars, all of which has been seized by the police as proceeds of crime.

Investigation revealed that Kilaru holds an engineering degree in electronics and telecommunication and studied for over four years in the UK where he has completed his PhD. He has worked at University of Hyderabad briefly and has twice cleared the preliminary exam and the mains of the UPSC civil services. He has also worked as a teacher at a UPSC training academy. Probe suggests he has been booked and also faced arrest in the past in cases of online frauds and impersonation from 2023.

In the case of cyber fraud in which the private university was targeted, the complainant received a text message from a person who identified himself as a well-known educationist and former Chancellor of the Savitribai Phule Pune University. This person shared a contact number with the complainant, claiming it to be of a senior IIT Bombay professor and said he will share details on research funding opportunities. When the complainant called this number, the person claiming to be the IIT professor said that a drone research project of the DRDO with funding of around Rs 28 crores has been sanctioned by the government. The “professor” asked the complainant to transfer two per cent of the total project value, Rs 56 lakh as an initial fee. The fraudster also sent all the project related information from a fraudulent mail address.

After discussing the issue with the Dean of Research of the private university, Rs 56 lakh were transferred to an account given by the fraudster posing as the IIT professor. Over the coming three weeks, the fraudster continued to manipulate the complainant and administration of the private university. First fraudulent offer of a project funding was followed by two more similar proposals of joint research projects of funding of Rs 23 crores and Rs 72 crores. And in the same manner two per cent fees of Rs 46 lakh and Rs 1.44 crore respectively was sought. The private university transferred those amounts to the account given by the fraudster.

In a communication in the last week of August, the fraudster posing as the IIT professor agreed to come to the campus of the private university to sign the MoUs. However all attempts to contact him from August 26 failed. When the complainant called IIT Bombay and got the number of the professor the fraudster was claiming to be, it came to light that no such proposals were moved by the said professor. After realising that they had been defrauded, the complainant approached the cyber crime police station and an FIR was registered.

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