Andhra Pradesh Ranji Trophy cricketer Budumuru Nagaraju on Thursday was arrested for impersonating Board of Control for Cricket in India chief selector MSK’s Prasad’s voice and duping people, TheNewsMinute reported.
Nagaraju has featured for his state team for the South Zone and the Central Zone in the past and hails from Visakhapatnam. The Vijayawada police arrested him near the Gannavaram airport after a complaint. Nagaraju had taken money from him and promised to build a cricket academy in Visakhapatnam.
“Following the successes in his career, Nagaraju started getting sponsorships from different firms and was habituated to a luxurious lifestyle,” ACP Central Y Ankineedu Prasad was quoted as saying in the report.
“In 2018 with a motive to earn easy money, he duped a person called N Gopal claiming that he would establish a Dhoni Cricket Academy in Visakhapatnam. Gopal filed a complaint and a case was registered at that time in Visakhapatnam.”
The police also stated that Nagaraju was earlier arrested for two other cases of duping. After his release, he started duping people mimicking Prasad’s voice.
The officer said: “He closely observed Prasad in a few prize distribution sessions and noted how he speaks.
“Then he changed his profile name to MSK Prasad on the Truecaller app, after which he impersonated the former cricketer and collected Rs 2.88 lakh claiming that he represented Kolkata Knight Riders.”
Nagaraju also collected Rs 3.88 lakh from Ramakrishna Housing Private Limited using the former India wicketkeeper’s name. In 2016, Nagaraju tried to enter the Guinness book for the ‘longest individual cricket net session (male)’.