4 held for posing as BBMP officials, duping people

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Three people have been arrested for cheating people by promising free laptops for poor students, while posing as Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) officials in the city.

Police identified the arrested accused as Harsha, 20, a resident of Vidyaranyapura; Roopesh, 18, from Vijayanagar in the city and Mohan, 21, a resident of Bapujinagar here. The arrests were made based on a complaint by a resident of Vidyaranyapura alleging that the accused persons had cheated him of Rs 44,500.

In his complaint, the victim claimed that he received a phone call from an unknown person “pretending” to be a BBMP official. He was asked to register for a free laptop. During the process, the accused asked him to pay money citing fees at various stages, the victim stated in his complaint to the police.

The Cyber Economics and Narcotics wing from Northeast Bengaluru took up the case and tracked the trio. “The persons used to contact gullible people on phone, stating that they were from the BBMP social welfare department and would promise free laptops to poor students.