Vuma Group Fraud: MD Arrested

K Umamaheswarudu (57), MD of the Vijaywada-based Vuma group of companies, was arrested on Nakkala Road and presented before the First Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate on Friday. The city police had, earlier, received complaints of cheating from about 1,000 depositors of chit funds and other investments, regarding a sum total of about Rs. 28 crores.

The Vuma group includes Vuma Resorts India Limited, Sai Vuma Chit Fund Company, Vuma Financiers and Vuma Maheswari Finvest Limited. The other directors of the company, P B Srirama Chandra Murthy (brother-in-law of Uma Maheswarudu), Kanaka Durga (wife of Uma Maheswarudu) and Prakasham (younger brother of Uma Maheswarudu) are still absconding.

The company - located at Satyanarayanapuram in the Vijayawada city - had collected cash deposits from about 2,500 people, amounting to Rs. 65 crores. After receiving complaints from an association of investors, all the bank accounts of the Vuma group were frozen, and investigations into the liabilities of the group. The assets of the promoters and their relatives and friends are also being looked into.

Umamaheswarudu has been sent to 14 days of judicial remand, and the next hearing on the case has been adjourned to April 3.