The victims of YSRCP women’s leader Devi Rao’s gang, who cheated the unemployed in Visakhapatnam are coming out after the police caught them in Odisha. Over 300 victims, of which a large number of rural youth were deceived by Devi Rao. She cheated each victim from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 15 lakhs. She was produced before a magistrate and sent to remand.
Devi Rao, who was staying at a lodge on Jaipur Road in Odisha, was arrested along with another person and taken to the MVP police station in Visakhapatnam. The police seized several key documents from her. She used to collect huge amounts of money from the unemployed and those who wanted to do work for various needs.
The way she collected money not only for jobs and transfers but also for marriages and functions increased the suffering of the victims. She continued her business targeting unemployed youth, especially the youth of rural areas. If necessary, she would give them blank cheques, promissory notes, etc. to make them more confident.
She would also use pastors as intermediaries for this. She also cheated former army personnel. During the YSRCP regime, she distributed fake job appointment documents with the forged signature of the then Visakhapatnam District Collector Mallikarjuna to some of those who gave her money.
She also created fake documents claiming that some others had got jobs in the Railways and other central government departments and ran the business. Sometimes, she would emotionally blackmail the victims and even after extorting two to three lakhs, she would not let them go and convince them that if they gave her another lakh, the work would be done.
The victims complained to the Visakhapatnam City Police Commissioner that she was taking money from 300 unemployed people in this way and threatening them with rowdies when they asked for it back. Despite going around for a few months, there was no response from the police.