Actors aide among Deeptis besotted men

HYDERABAD: She freaks out on the latest electronic gadgets, be it the latest version of an Apple notebook, iPhone, iPod or iPad. Any new gadget arrives on the market, she is quick to own one.Perhaps, her ‘association’ with several nonresident Indians and some richie-rich locals who blew up their money on her, quite a few lakhs each, may have given her this craze for gadgets.Deepti Vallapuri, an alleged fraudster arrested by CID’s Cyber Crime wing on Thursday for blackmailing and extorting money from all the men she had relationship with. Sources associated with the investigation told Express that Deepti had relationship with 21 men, most of whom are NRIs, and collected over Rs1.5 crore from them.Among her ‘victims’ is a close follower of a Tollywood actor whose family is in politics. ‘’She came in contact with this 28-year-old software professional who became a close follower of the said actor during the last elections.He spent a lot of time with her and much money— Rs 4 lakh on her,’’ sources said.He too approached the CID sleuths on Friday to lodge a complaint against Deepti. ‘’He just gave into her demands for obvious reasons and she started blackmailing him too,’’ the sources said.What surprised the investigators is the fact that Deepti was allegedly mentored by her mother Pushpalata, who is likely to be arrested shortly as she has been named as a co-accused in the case.With all the money she got by blackmailing NRIs and the local rich, Deepti had had a lavish lifestyle.‘’She speaks fluent English and has a sound knowledge of computers,’’ the sources said.Since she had a lavish lifestyle, Deepti would only fly whenever she travelled outside the state.She also owned two cars and a swanky house in Guntur. “Her father, who is no more, ran a distance education centre along with his wife and sold fake certificates.’’ Though she allegedly blackmailed 21 persons and managed to extort over Rs 1.5 crore, she spent most of the money on leading a lavish lifestyle, particularly on buying electronic gadgets, the sources said.