Vijayanagar police have arrested a 30-year-old man who allegedly cheated a woman government job aspirant of Rs 59.5 lakh.
He had promised to get her good marks in the Karnataka Administrative Service exam and make her a tahsildar, police said.
Siddaraju Subhasha Chandra Kattimani, 30, a native of Talikoti in Vijayapura district, is also a government job aspirant, and took coaching, provided by the Department of Social Welfare, in Delhi. He is said to have appeared for the Union Public Service Commission exam.
After returning to Karnataka, Kattimani started targetting those preparing for civil service exams. Kattimani was arrested on the basis of a complaint filed by Savitha Shantappa Yalasangikar, 29.
In her complaint, she stated she had been staying at a paying guest accommodation near a coaching centre in Vijayanagar. Kattimani was introduced to her by a common friend. He promised her high marks in the competitive exams.
Believing him, Savitha paid him a total of Rs 59.5 lakh between August 2020 and February 2021. She had transferred some amounts directly to bank accounts suggested by him, and the rest by cash, police said.
Savitha had passed in the preliminary exams and was about to write the mains. She had taken loans from her friends and two brothers, who are government employees. Also, her father had sold the family land to raise money for her. “We are collecting details to see if he has cheated more aspirants,” a senior policeman said.
His trick: Chatting with himself
During investigation, police learnt that the accused, Kattimani, had collected the phone numbers of IAS, IPS and other officials from web portals. He bought SIM cards and assigned the officials’ names to them on Truecaller, a caller identification app. Later, he allegedly chatted with himself using those numbers and impersonating top government officials.
Kattimani showed Savitha these chats and made her believe the officials had agreed to help her get high marks. Police have recovered some of the money. He spent the rest living it up in Delhi and Goa, they said.