Conmen are taking advantage of the recent raids that the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) carried out against various Government officials including those with the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) and the civic body. In another case – the second since March – unidentified conmen allegedly posed as ACB sleuths and targeted Bangalore Electricity Supply Company Ltd. (Bescom) officers in an attempt to extort money by threatening to conduct raids and search operations.
The Halasuru Gate police, on Friday, filed an FIR and have taken up a probe following a complaint lodged by the superintendent engineer of Bescom south division. “The complainant, Shanthamallappa S.T., said he received a call on Thursday night on his mobile phone from a man who identified himself as Ravishankar, DySP, ACB. The fake ACB official warned that he was going to raid his house. He instructed Mr. Shanthamallappa to apply for casual leave to coordinate with the raid and also gave him an option to transfer over ₹1.44 lakh in two instalments of ₹72,000 to an online account if he wanted to stop the raid,” said a police officer.
When Mr. Shanthamallappa told him that he cannot transfer such a huge amount, the conman asked to meet him at the head office with the cash. Instead, the Bescom superintendent engineer reported the incident to his senior colleagues who also said that they had received similar calls from an ACB officer demanding money to avoid raids.
The police are now trying to track down the accused based on the mobile phone used to call the officials. In March, the High Grounds police had arrested three conmen who convinced BDA engineers that they were with the ACB and successfully extorted ₹10 lakh from them. The ACB has warned government officials not to entertain calls from people claiming to be with the bureau but instead report the matter to the jurisdictional police.
