'Soft-skills trainer' dupes 4 of Rupees 2.2 lakh

Posing as a soft-skills trainer, a conman duped a flat owner and four employees of a private firm and made away with Rs 2.2 lakh in Marathahalli on Monday.

Jagannath H B, the owner of a real estate firm on ITPL main road, was approached by a man who introduced himself as Mohamed Abdul Raheem.

Raheem told him that he was a soft-skills trainer at an MNC and needed a flat for rent. The accused selected a flat and paid Rs 96,000 as rent for two months in August this year.

Raheem told the owner that he was using the flat for teaching his students and also for providing accommodation for some students. Jagannath agreed and prepared the agreement and called him a couple of times to get the agreement copy, but Raheem gave him an excuse citing his busy schedule.

The fraud came to light when Jagannath tried to call Raheem on the third month for collecting rent, but could not reach him. Jagannath then went to the flat and found four persons living there. They were Shubham Agarwal, Shrey Choudhary, Hardikh and Anand Shankar.

The four told the owner that Raheem had taken Rs 2 lakh from them to rent out the flat and had also taken three months’ advance rent of Rs 1.2 lakh. Realising that they all were duped, Jagannath approached the Marathahalli police and lodged a cheating complaint on Tuesday. The police are now on the lookout for the accused whom they suspect also faked his name and identity for committing the fraud.