New Delhi: Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI) police on Friday apprehended a thug named Modela Venkat Dinesh Kumar, who has cheated more than 150 flyers/passengers across many airports of the country.

His style of deceiving & tricking air travellers even took the cops by surprise. He would roam around the airports, befriend some passengers pretending himself to be a student and then extract money from them by claiming that he missed his flight.

According to the police, the accused is a resident of Guntur in Andhra Pradesh. Several cases of cheating are already registered against him in Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad, apart from Delhi.

IGI DCP Devesh Kumar Mahala said that on April 6, a passenger named Akshat Palsania complained to the CISF personnel deployed at the airport about a suspicious person. Palsania said the suspect said he had missed his flight and needed some money to buy a ticket for another flight. On this information, CISF saw the CCTV footage. In the clip, Modela was seen at boarding gate number 29. He had reached there by Air India flight from Vijayawada.

Modela had also taken a ticket to travel to Mumbai in the name of Krishna Raju. According to the IGI police, earlier on November 12, 2022, a passenger named Ramana Venkat S had also complained about a person named Dinesh Kumar seeking his help in name of missing the flight. Ramna transferred Rs 9500 to the passenger’s account, but the amount was never received back.

SI Mukesh Kumar and Head Constable Hawa Singh were deputed to investigate the matter. They arrested the accused Modela Venkat Dinesh Kumar with the help of CISF on 6th April. The accused revealed during the interrogation that he had committed similar frauds at different airports.

He used to portray himself as a student and would trick passengers to transfer money into his account as ‘assistance’, which he never returned. There are 10 similar cases of cheating on him at different airports in the country. A fourth case was registered against the Modela at Delhi’s IGI airport.

Modela was also arrested in Bangalore, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Kolkata. The accused’s father is a farmer and he himself is unemployed after passing BBA.