E-stamp paper fraud busted in Andhra, three held: Cops

SOME MUSLIM ORGANISATIONS CAME OUT AGAINST STATE GOVT'S DECISION TO INTRODUCE ZUMBA DANCE IN SCHOOLS

- Srinivasa Rao Apparasu

HYDERABAD: The Anantapur police in Andhra Pradesh on Saturday busted a major e-stamp fraud and arrested three persons, who caused huge loss running into several lakhs of rupees to the revenue department, officials aware of the matter said.

The accused were identified as Boya Yerrappa, who runs Babu Mee Seva Centre (an online platform that extends government services to the people) at Kalyandurg and his accomplices Mohan Babu and Bhuvaneshwar.

"They were arrested near Maruti weigh bridge on Anantapur road at Kalyandurg, when they were trying to flee the place," Anantapur superintendent of police P Jagadeesh told reporters.

Police seized three mobile phones, computers, printer-scanner units, laptop and other electronic material from the arrested people.

"We have booked the accused under sections 318 (4) (cheating), 338 (forgery of valuable securities and documents), 340 (2) r/w 3(5) (fraudulent and dishonest use of forged documents) of Bharatiya Nyaya Samhitha," the SP said.

Jagadeesh said on June 22, the Anantapur Town II police received a complaint from SRC Infra Developers Pvt Ltd assistant general manager G Satish Babu, who alleged that Yerrappa had sold them forged e-stamp papers for registration of their property documents.

According to the complaint, the Mee Seva operator had misused eight e-stamp certificates, causing an estimated government revenue loss of ₹7.9 lakh.

Investigation revealed that the SRC Infra Developers had purchased around 410 e-stamps from the Babu Mee Seva Centre since 2022.

An internal audit found 17 of them were forged or misused and an amount of ₹16.51 lakhs paid to Boya Yerrappa's SBI account. While only ₹2,000 was paid as stamp duty to the government, the remaining ₹16.49 lakh was allegedly misappropriated.