AP e-challan scam: Former DGP's son-in-law dupes Govt of Rs 36.55 crore

VIJAYAWADA: A massive scam has unfolded in Andhra Pradesh where a former DGP's son-in-law has been accused by being involved in the Rs 36.55 crore scam through payment gateway services of traffic e-challan. The incident came to light after the police started an internal probe over the differences in the collection of traffic fines in Tirupati.

According to details, fines related to cases registered by traffic police in Andhra Pradesh are collected in the form of e-challans, which would be deposited into the account of DGP through four payment gateways. It also includes a gateway called Razor Pay belonging to Data Evolve owned by former DGP Sambasiva Rao's son-in-law Kommireddy Avinash.

However, instead of directly depositing the money from Razor Pay gateway into the DGP's account, the money was credited into Avinash's account with the cloned app Razer Pay developed by Avinash. About, Rs 36.55 crore was transferred into Avinash's accounts.

It has come to light that on June 27, 2017, the then DGP Sambasiva Rao entrusted Data Evolve as the e-challan service provider. Data Evolve had reportedly acquired the contract by quoting Re 1 and amassed Rs 36.65 crore among the Rs 100 crore collected through fines in the last five years.

The scam came to light after Tirupati Traffic DSP Narsappa found differences in the amount collected from May 1 to May 20. While inquiring about the money collected from his unit daily, he escalated the matter to the attention of higher authorities. This massive scam was uncovered after an internal inquiry was conducted. Kothapalli Rajasekhar of Data Evolve was produced in court while Kommireddy Avinash, the key accused, is currently absconding.

The police said that Avinash's sister Akshitha and Ravi Kiran, who are directors of the same company, were also involved in the case. Stating that they would arrest the remaining accused soon, the police said they were investigating the transfer of money into various accounts through a cloned app.

Meanwhile, the Guntur Range DIG wrote to the registration department to halt the sale and purchase of assets belonging to Avinash and his company Data Evolve.