Pune: A Hyderabad-based PhD holder, with degrees from two prominent universities in London, has been arrested for allegedly cheating a Pune educational institute of Rs 2.5 crore in online fraud between July 25 and Aug 7, promising govt-aided research funding in the fields of drones and AI technology.The Pune cyber police identified the arrested as Seetaiah Kilaru (34) of Meherr Road in Hyderabad’s Yapral, who holds PhD in electronics and telecommunication.A cyber police officer said, “Kilaru tried to defraud two other educational institutes in Pune and Chennai using a similar method but failed to execute the scam. He has eight previous cases of cheating and under IT Act to his name since 2023 with the cyber and other police stations in Telangana.”Additional commissioner of police (crime) Pankaj Deshmukh said, “Kilaru spent Rs 1.5 crore on online betting, to which he is reportedly addicted. During investigation, we seized 10 debit cards, 13 bank passbooks, 15 cheque books, a sim card, receipts for gold purchases, various documents, four cellphones, a tablet, a laptop, cash and two cars, collectively worth Rs 49.8 lakh. Our inquiry also revealed that he had transferred Rs 25 lakh to his father-in-law, which is yet to be recovered. Additionally, he paid a full year’s rent in advance for his flat and purchased a new car worth over Rs 27 lakh.”When asked how the police identified and tracked him down, Deshmukh said: “Kilaru secured the phone number of a former IIT-Bombay professor and also a former vice-chancellor of Savitribai Phule Pune University from the IIT’s website and contacted the ex-VC by impersonating a genuine IIT-Bombay professor. He convinced the ex-VC to refer him to some institute to which he could help secure govt funding in projects. That is how the defrauded Pune institute’s chief education officer first got a text message from the former VC stating that a person would call him to explain govt-funding opportunities.”He said following a series of calls and messages between Kilaru and the chief education officer, the institute transferred funds in three installments, expecting him to arrive and sign an MoU, which never happened. “We traced the entire sequence by analysing call records, found Kilaru’s number in the former VC’s call logs and tracked him down. We also followed the money trail to confirm the fraud.”The police said between 2010 and 2014, Kilaru, who is married and a father of two children, did his masters in electronics and telecommunication from a university in London and PhD from another university also in London. Later, he worked for a year till 2016 with a deemed university in Hyderabad. From 2016 to 2018, he worked with a private university also in Hyderabad and cleared his UPSC Prelims and Mains in 2019-20 but could not clear the selection interview. He was unemployed since 2022 after a dispute within his family and became addicted to online betting, the police said.Over the last two years, Kilaru has been named in four cheating and IT Act cases registered by the Cyber police in Telangana, another two cases by the Gachibowli police station and two more cases by the Medipally police station in Medchal Malkagiri district of Telangana, the police said.A Pune Cyber police team headed by senior inspector Swapnali Shinde camped in Hyderabad for two days to keep track of Kilaru’s movements and nabbed him early on Sunday morning. The team produced him before a local court in Hyderabad, which ordered his transit remand, following which Kilaru was brought to Pune.On Tuesday, the police produced him before a Pune court that ordered his custodial remand till Sept 28.
