Avva Sitarama Rao was arrested by the State CID police

Avva Sitarama Rao, a key accused in the AgriGold Group inter-State scam, was arrested by the State CID police at Gurugram of the National Capital Region on Tuesday.

Mr. Rao, 48, is the brother of group chairman A. Venkata Rama Rao and had been elusive for the last two years after the scam broke. He was named as accused in at least eight FIRs registered in various districts based on the complaints from victims in 2014 and 2015.He was produced before a local court and then reportedly airlifted from New Delhi on Tuesday evening and would be produced before a city court on Wednesday, according to CID officials.

He was picked up from an apartment where he was stationed for the past many weeks.Mr. Rao was one of the directors of the group and was part of more than 17 companies in various fields including construction, real estate, television and power.Following the complaints registered against him, he refused to turn up before the investigation officers of the CID. In October, 2017, he moved the Hyderabad High Court through top lawyers seeking squashing of the cases lodged more than three years after he resigned from the directorship of the companies concerned.

The High Court dismissed the criminal petition and asked Mr. Rao to cooperate with the investigators.He quit several AgriGold companies in 2011, three years before the scam broke.The statement of Mr. Rao is going to be crucial for assessing the properties owned by the group, officials believe.The accused was booked under IPC Sections 406, 420, 120-B, section 5 of AP Protection of Depositors of Financial Establishment Act, 1999 and others.