Pune: UK-Educated PhD Arrested By Cyber Police For ₹2.46 Crore Fraud On Educational Institute
Pune: UK-Educated PhD Arrested By Cyber Police For ₹2.46 Crore Fraud On Educational Institute
Pune, September 25, 2025: The Cyber Cell of Pune City Police has arrested a 34-year-old man with a doctorate in Electronics and Telecommunication from the University of Birmingham, UK, for duping a reputed educational institute of ₹2.46 crore by posing as a renowned academician.
The accused, identified as Seetaiah Kilaru, a resident of Yapral in Hyderabad, was taken into custody on Sunday. Police secured a transit remand before bringing him to Pune. “The investigation revealed that Kilaru impersonated a prominent IIT Bombay professor to gain the trust of the complainant. He was tracked to Hyderabad and arrested,” said Swapnali Shinde, Senior Police Inspector, Cyber Cell.
According to the complaint filed by the 55-year-old chief educational officer of the private institute, Kilaru first contacted him on July 25 while impersonating Raghunath Shevgaonkar, former Vice-Chancellor of Savitribai Phule Pune University. He then introduced the victim to a fictitious academician, “Dr. Chethan Kamath,” who allegedly offered research funding under Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) projects.
The institute was asked to pay 2% of the project cost as processing fees. Trusting the offer, the complainant transferred ₹56 lakh initially, followed by ₹46 lakh and ₹1.44 crore in subsequent transactions. When “Dr. Kamath” failed to attend a scheduled meeting on August 26 and stopped responding, the institute realised the fraud and lodged a case with Cyber Police on September 6.
Police recovered 10 debit cards, 13 passbooks, 15 cheque books, four mobile phones, a tablet, a laptop, two cars, and gold purchase receipts worth nearly ₹50 lakh from Kilaru. He has been remanded to police custody until September 28.
Investigations revealed that Kilaru, despite holding a PhD and clearing UPSC prelims and mains in 2019–20, had turned to cybercrime after a family dispute in 2022 and an addiction to online gaming. He already faces eight cybercrime cases in Telangana and was out on bail at the time of committing the Pune fraud.
