Andhra native posing as food inspector arrested

KOCHI: In a clear cut case of fraud, a native of Andhra Pradesh was nabbed by the police from a bar hotel at Vyttila on charges of impersonation, extortion and swindling, on Saturday. The arrested person is identified as Atham Dasharatha  Rami Reddy. This comes in the wake of notices being issued by the corporation to some hotels in the region for serving stale food.The police said that Reddy was using government credentials to hoodwink the hotel staff and  stayed for about two months. “Impersonating as a food safety official, he was extorting money from the hotel authorities. He has done the same in some of the hotels at Changanassery and Kottayam,” police said.The Changanassery police has already filed an FIR against the accused.  Suspicion arose when the Innova car of Reddy parked at the hotel premises bore a red vehicular beacon and a national flag affixed on the front portion of the car. Besides this, there was a logo of Bajrang Dal at the rear. The vehicle also bore the tag ‘Member of Task Force, FPI, Government of India'.The hotel authorities said that Reddy was staying at the hotel from March 2. “He was staying here for about one and a half months. As his identity, he produced his credentials showing he was working with the food safety department, Andhra Pradesh,” said the general manager of the bar hotel.But things started taking a turn when Rami Reddy failed to pay the bill. “He failed to pay the bills amounting to around Rs 50,000. We have issued him a notice regarding this,” the manager said.The police verified the person to be a fraudster. “Upon enquiry, we found no such official on the records of the food safety enforcement wing of Andhra Pradesh,” they said.The accused will be produced before the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate court, Ernakulam, on Monday.