Gachibowli police arrest businessman accused of holding 5 passports under different names

pHYDERABAD: Gachibowli police arrested a 55-year-old real estate businessman on Friday for allegedly obtaining at least five Indian passports since 1997 using different names and dates of birth. Police said the accused had travelled to 46 countries using the passports, as reported by TOI. The fraud came to light during scrutiny by US consulate staff [...]content:encodedstrongHYDERABAD:/strong Gachibowli police arrested a 55-year-old real estate businessman on Friday for allegedly obtaining at least five Indian passports since 1997 using different names and dates of birth. Police said the accused had travelled to 46 countries using the passports, as reported by TOI. The fraud came to light during scrutiny by US consulate staff when the businessman applied for a non-immigrant visa in December 2025. The consulate lodged a complaint with Gachibowli police in March 2026. The accused, Lakshmikanth Reddy Mothukpalli, a resident of Kokapet, applied for a US non-immigrant visa on December 8, 2025. He submitted an Indian a href=" showing his date of birth as August 9, 1971. Reddy declared that he was the founder and CEO of a realty company on Road No. 4, Banjara Hills. He also stated that he had served as managing director of a city infrastructure and mining company from 2008 to 2021. h2Consulate records showed repeated visa applications under aliases/h2 During routine verification, consulate staff found that Reddy had earlier applied for US visas under multiple identities, using different names, dates of birth and passports. In 1997, he applied for an H-1B visa from Quebec under the name "Middannola Laxmikanth" using one passport. In 1999, he applied for an H-1B visa from Delhi under the name "Medha Prasoon Kumar Reddy" using another passport. He used the same passport and identity to apply for H-1B visas from Chennai in 2003, 2004 and 2006, police said. Using a third passport under the name "Medha Prasoonkumar Reddy", he applied for a B-1/B-2 visa from Chennai in 2009. He later used a fourth passport in his original name to apply for a B-1/B-2 visa in December 2025. When consulate staff called him for an interview, he submitted another passport bearing his original name. The consulate's Overseas Criminal Investigations team provided Gachibowli police with copies of the two latest passports he furnished while lodging the complaint. h2Police seek travel records and details of passport facilitators/h2 Police registered a case under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Indian Passport Act. After obtaining further details from the regional passport office and the US consulate, police arrested Reddy on Friday. During the investigation, Reddy told police that he had lived in the US between 1994 and 1997 and operated a private business there. He also told police that he last travelled to the US in 2008. "The accused will be produced before the court for remand. We will write to the Bureau of Immigration and the passport office to obtain details of his travel records. The accused will also be taken into custody to find out who has helped him in obtaining multiple passports using false details," Gachibowli Inspector K Saidulu said.