One held in Hyderabad for posing as plasma donor, duping people

The Hyderabad Police has arrested a man who posed as a COVID-19 recovered patient to cheat over 200 people by borrowing money on the pretext of donating plasma and supplying antiviral medicines.

The accused has been identified as one Sandeep Reddy from Andhra Pradesh's Srikakulam.

Police said that Reddy a graduate who had completed a course in computer hardware networking at his native place was unemployed. Due to lack of a source of income, he committed two thefts and was sent to judicial remand.

"After his release he saw that due to COVID-19 outbreak there was a huge demand for plasma of recovered patients. Subsequently, he started browsing social media and found persons looking for plasma donors and sellers of antiviral drugs for COVID positive patients," police said.

The accused used to request these people to send some amount of money to him for transportation via online payment apps after which he used to dodge them. He also cheated some people in the guise of arranging Tocilizumab 400 mg drug used as antiviral for COVID.

The accused along with seized property was handed over to SHO Panjagutta Police Station.

Police also appealed to people to beware of such fraudsters and not to make any proactive payments.

( With inputs from ANI )