Employees of private firm in Hyderabad allege salary fraud

Hyderabad: A 25-year-old private-sector employee from Beeramguda has filed a complaint with the Punjagutta police, alleging that she and several others were cheated by a private firm operating from a building near Nagarjuna Circle in Punjagutta. Police have registered a cheating case and launched an investigation.

The complainant joined Technoreach as a business development executive in March. She claims that, between March 17 and 23, around 80 to 90 employees were recruited across departments. After this, the company’s CEO, M Lakshmikanth Goud, allegedly began creating issues over salary payments and threatened staff who questioned pending salary dues.

She also alleged that employees in the AI and Cyber Security departments were asked to pay amounts ranging from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1.5 lakh for training, which was only conducted for a few days.

According to the Punjagutta police, the building owners locked the office premises on April 25 due to non-payment of rent. After this, the CEO stopped responding to calls and salaries were not paid.

Based on the complaint, Punjagutta police booked a case against M Lakshmikanth Goud under Sections 308(2) (extortion punishment), 351(2) (criminal intimidation) and 352 (Intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) on Friday.