HYDERABAD: The Cyberabad police have arrested four persons, including Prodigy’s managing director (MD) Murli Radha Krishna, who had duped over 1,000 employees of over Rs 4 crore by collecting money from them in the name of providing employment.

Police arrested Prodigy MD K Murali Radha Krishna, director T Ashok, employee-cum-consultant P Sumanth and general administrator Srikar.

According to the police, Murali, an MA in English, launched Prodigy Solutions in December 2010 as a BPO unit with 40 employees. Eventually, he recruited 20 more employees to join his about-to-be launched IT firm.

“From each one of his employees, Murali collected Rs 50,000 by claiming that they will be given special training. He began collecting a lot of money from over 1,000 employees later,” Cyberabad commissioner of police Ch Dwaraka Tirumala Rao said.

Police nabbed Murali from his residence in Nagole on Monday. Based on the information provided by him, other key employees of the firm, who assisted him in the offence, were also arrested.

Prior to launching Prodigy, Murali had a job consultancy through which he duped 15 persons to the tune of Rs 13 lakh by promising them jobs in Genpact BPO.

Police recovered Rs 23,85,000 cash, an Innova, a Ford Fiesta and several computers from the accused. In view of serial IT frauds, the Cyberabad police have come up with a poster campaign. “Never join a company that takes money from you to give a job. If any such incident comes to your notice, SMS Cyberabad police at 9640100100,” the commissioner said.

Source : TOI

The industrial sector is reporting a production loss of Rs 110 crore a day following the 15 per cent shortfall of power due to the Telangana employees strike which entered its ninth day on Wednesday. The RTC, meanwhile, put on hold its decision to sack contract employees who are on strike. A number of industries in Ranga Reddy and Medak district have shut down temporarily due to prolonged load shedding. “The worst hit by the power shortage are the medium and small enterprises which do not have generation capacity of their own,” said Mr Rajeshwar Rao, secretary of the Federation of AP Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

About 15 per cent of overall production losses are being reported causing approximately a loss of Rs 110 crore daily, he said adding “Many companies are choosing to not run to avoid loss of wages.” The IT hub in Madhapur is facing six-hour power cuts daily apart from the two-hour power cuts imposed in the area. Most of the bigger IT companies maintain back-up, but Mr P. Suresh, IT and ITES Industry Association president pointed out, “The power cuts are resulting in huge increase of operational costs for IT companies.”

But ministers and VIPs dwelling in Ministers Quarters (Road No 12, Banjara Hills) remained immune to power cuts. According to an aide of a senior minister there have been no power cuts in the area. This while a number of areas in the city reported multiple power shutdowns, as against the two-hour power cuts announced officially. Government websites went offline due to power failure, while many departments had difficulty finding internet connectivity and could not send or receive emails. The website of the ‘Centre for Good Governance’ remained offline through the day citing power failure.

Source : DC