Hyderabad: Tollywood director Srinu Vaitla approached the Hyderabad central crime station (CCS) with a complaint, alleging that he and his niece, P Sweetha, were cheated of about ₹7.2 crore by a group posing as the owners of 11.59 acres of agricultural land in Vikarabad district.According to the complaint, the fraud began in Jan 2019 when seven persons, G Prabhakar Reddy, M Anandam, B Agi Reddy, D Venkata Reddy, B Srinivas Reddy, S Janga Reddy and M Mysamma, visited his house in Jubilee Hills with an offer to sell their agricultural land at Kadmoor village in Pudur mandal. They showed forged land ownership documents and persuaded Vaitla and his niece to buy the land. Two real estate brokers, J Sudhakar Reddy and K Krishna, aided the accused in perpetrating the fraud.The film director paid ₹55.65 lakh through cheques between Feb 11 and May 10, 2019, while Swetha paid another ₹29.17 lakh to the accused. After the payment, five registered sale deeds were executed by the accused at the Pargi sub-registrar office in favour of the director and his niece for the 11.59-acre land.Vaitla realised the fraud in June 2025, when the Vikarabad collector served notices citing high court orders in two writ petitions filed in 2024 by P Anjaiah, P Yadaiah and others claiming ownership of portions of the same land. Vaitla was also informed that those who sold the land to him and his niece were not the lawful owners. As per the court orders, the collector conducted an enquiry into the ownership of the lands. After an enquiry, on Aug 30, 2025, the Vikarabad collector issued orders directing the revenue authorities to issue pattadar passbooks to the parties who have filed writ petitions. “At present estimated market rate of ₹60 lakh per acre, the 11.59-acre land value is roughly ₹7.2 crore,” the director told police.On his complaint, CCS police registered a case under Sections 318(4) (cheating), 336(3) (forgery for purpose of cheating), 338 (forgery of valuable security, will, etc) and 340(2) (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record), read with 61(2) (criminal conspiracy) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita against the accused on March 17. “We are verifying the documents of land transaction provided by the complainant. We will seek information from the revenue, stamps and registration officials pertaining to the registration of sale deeds in a fraudulent manner and initiate appropriate legal action,” said a CCS official.
