Conmen pose as minister's aides, cheat man

Persons claiming themselves be close aides of the district in-charge minister have cheated a man by compelling him to shell out an amount to the tune of Rs 1 lakh, to get the work done at the Revenue Department.

The incident came to light late. Lingegowda from Maddur village is the victim. He had submitted an application at the deputy commissioner’s office for the conversion of a seven-acre land that he owns at Kushalnagar.

When he came to the deputy commissioner’s office to obtain relevant documents on November 4, a person who introduced himself as a case worker at the office said that the land records were prepared by him.

He placed a demand for Rs 1 lakh to carry out the land conversion work.

The ‘case worker’ made a phone call to another person who claimed to be the personal secretary to District In-charge Minister Sa Ra Mahesh and handed over the phone to Lingegowda.

Lingegowda obliged and spoke to the ‘minister’s personal secretary’ and another unknown person about the ‘fee’ to be paid for the land conversion. Lingegowda withdrew the amount from the bank and handed Rs 1 lakh to the self declared case worker, in good faith.

The person promised to hand over the processed documents later. However, when Lingegowda went to the DC’s office complex to obtain the documents on the said date, the person did not turn up. The efforts to contact him went in vain as his phone was switched off.

On realising that he had been cheated, Lingegowda submitted a complaint to the police.

The police have constituted a special team to nab the culprits. They are verifying the CCTV footage as well.