Man dupes people posing as minister’s PA, arrested

A man who duped people on a pretext of landing them a government job, posing as a personal assistant to Karnataka water resources minister D K Shivakumar, was arrested on Saturday.

Police arrested Manjunath, who had cheated several people including civil service aspirants, of a sum of Rs 27 lakh by promising them government jobs.

A native of Tumkur and resident of Magadi Road, Manjunath was unemployed, the police said. One of his victims, Venkatesh, filed a complaint against him with the Subramanya Nagar police on July 23 leading to Manjunath’s arrest on Saturday. A senior police officer said that Manjunath had introduced himself to Venkatesh at a library in Rajajinagar as a PA to Shivakumar. He even feigned connections with members of the Karnataka Public Service Commission to convince Venkatesh.

Venkatesh then gave him a total of Rs 15 lakh in instalments till 2018 but failed to get a job. After being pressurised by Venkatesh, Manjunath handed him a fake job offer letter from the Revenue Department. But on visiting the department, Venkatesh realised that Manjunath had cheated him, following which he filed a complaint.

The police also arrested a female friend of Manjunath, Sudharani (24), who used to take care of his finances. The preliminary investigation revealed that the duo had cheated several unemployed men and women. Police also found out that the duo had cheated a woman on the pretext of getting her a job in the Karnataka High Court. The woman had filed a complaint against them with the Malleswaram police station.

DCP (north) Chethan Singh Rathore said that Manjunath had even cheated his own relative, promising him a government job. The victim got his money back after approaching Manjunath’s family members repeatedly.