Case against chit fund operator for cheating 22 subscribers

Hyderabad: Central Crime Station (CCS) sleuths registered a cheating case on Dec 15 against chit fund operator Hatty Chandrakanth of Lingampally for duping over 20 people of 1.6 crore.

In his complaint, 32-year-old private employee Sainath Jajapuram of Aghapura told police he met Chandrakanth in Aug 2020. "Chandrakanth offered me 12,000 monthly salary to recruit subscribers for a series of chits floated under the name, Om Sai Ram," the complainant alleged.


Trusting the proposal, Sainath roped in 22 acquaintances for five schemes launched between 2022 and 2024, valued at 5 lakh, 10 lakh and 25 lakh. He collected their instalments and transferred 83.87 lakh through his SBI and HDFC accounts to nine accounts provided by the accused. Cash payments were also made.

Trouble surfaced in March 2025 when Chandrakanth stopped answering calls and withheld payouts on maturity of the fund. "He also owed me four months' salary," Sainath said. Subsequent inquiries by Sainath and others revealed the accused had induced some of his relatives to invest another 82 lakh on the promise of hefty returns.

On Sainath's complaint, a case was registered under Sections 316(2) (punishment for criminal breach of trust) and 318(4) (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), Section 5 of the Telangana Protection of Depositors of Financial Establishments Act and Section 76 of the Chit Funds Act against Chandrakanth and others.

"Preliminary evidence points to criminal breach of trust and cheating. We suspect that the schemes were run without any licences. We are collecting details of the money transfers from the victims," a CCS investigator said.