Ex-BBMP staffer cheats 200 people promising marshal jobs

Police have arrested a man who allegedly cheated around 200 people by promising to get them jobs as a marshal in the BBMP and charged Rs 3000 each.

The accused Harsha M, a resident of Jambu Savari Dinne in JP Nagar who has passed SSLC, used his old BBMP ID to pose as an employee to deceive unemployed youngsters.  

An investigating officer told DH that the suspect was employed as a data entry operator in the BBMP during the pandemic and worked for a considerable time.

“While he was working with the BBMP, he befriended a marshal and gathered information about the recruitment process and the offer letter. Based on the knowledge, he devised the plan,” police said.

Police suspect that he has been running the scam for over a year. However, they are yet to ascertain the time period.

The officer suggested that Harsha has scammed over 200 people, but there might be more.

Unsuspecting targets  

Police said that Harsha primarily targeted unemployed youths and those enrolled with the National Cadet Corps (NCC) to siphon off money.

When he came across a youngster, he would flash his ID, now invalid, and give them a story about how the BBMP is directly recruiting people to be marshals.

Harsha demanded Rs 3,000 from those who showed interest in the job. In some cases, he created a fake offer letter and sent it to the victims. Subsequently, he asked them to inform more people about the recruitment process and scammed them, too.

The police officer quoted above said that he had planned the scam so ingeniously that he even offered concession to people from the backward classes.

“The accused had also created a few Whatsapp groups with the job seekers and posted updates about the offers to make it look real,” the officer said.