Pune, Sept. 25 -- The Cyber Cell of Pune City police has arrested a highly qualified fraudster with a doctorate in Electronics and Telecommunication from the UK for duping a reputed educational institute in the city of Rs.2.46 crore by posing as an eminent academician. The accused, identified as Seetaiah Kilaru, 34, a resident of Hyderabad's Yapral area, was arrested on Sunday. After securing a transit remand from a local court, police brought him to Pune. "During investigation, it was revealed that the accused impersonated a well-known professor from IIT Bombay to gain the victim's trust. Our team tracked him to Hyderabad and placed him under arrest," said Swapnali Shinde, senior police inspector, Cyber Cell. According to the complaint lodged by the 55-year-old chief educational officer of a private institute, Kilaru first contacted him on July 25, impersonating Raghunath Shevgaonkar, former vice chancellor of Savitribai Phule Pune University. Posing as Shevgaonkar, the accused introduced the victim to another fictitious academician, Dr Chethan Kamath, who allegedly offered the institute research funding under Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) projects. The complainant was told he had to pay 2% of the project cost as a processing fee. Believing the claim, the institute transferred Rs.56 lakh initially, followed by Rs.46 lakh and Rs.1.44 crore on July 30 and August 7 for projects supposedly related to Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. When 'Dr Kamath' failed to turn up for a scheduled meeting on August 26 and stopped responding, the complainant made inquiries and learnt that no such projects existed. A case was then registered with Cyber Police Station on September 6. Police have seized from Kilaru's possession 10 debit cards, 13 passbooks, 15 cheque books, a 5G SIM card, gold purchase receipts, four mobile phones, a tablet, a laptop, and two cars, including an SUV, collectively worth nearly Rs.50 lakh. A Pune court has remanded him to police custody till September 28. Investigators said Kilaru holds a PhD in Electronics and Telecommunication from the University of Birmingham, UK, and previously worked at various universities. He also cleared UPSC prelims and mains in 2019-20 and worked as an online UPSC tutor. Police said eight cybercrime cases are already registered against him in Telangana, and he was out on bail when he committed the Pune fraud....