Shocking white collar crimes coming to light

A doctor allegedly stole a baby and passed it off as a surrogate, and two engineers posed as policemen to rob a construction supervisor

Bengaluru police have stumbled on a series of crimes committed by people with high educational qualifications. Doctors and engineers are among those behind bars for these crimes.

Dr Rashmi Shashikumar, psychiatrist at a private hospital on Bannerghatta Road, allegedly stole a newborn baby from a BBMP maternity home at Chamarajpet a year ago. Police cracked the case recently.

“Rashmi had taken Rs 15 lakh from a couple consulting her for a year. She had promised them a child through surrogacy. They already have a special child, and were keen on a second baby,” says Harish Pandey, deputy commissioner of police, south zone.

Rashmi manipulated her own pregnancy records and showed it to the couple to make them believe that a surrogate mother would be delivering a baby for them.

When the due date, May 28, 2020, arrived, she allegedly went from one maternity hospital to another hunting for a newborn to steal.

“She had to find a baby when the couple grew suspicious and threatened to file a police complaint. She went to a BBMP facility in Chamarajpet and posed as a consulting doctor,” he says. Rashmi met Husna Banu, who had delivered a baby boy, and hung around the hospital, waiting for the mother and baby to fall asleep. Shen then sneaked away with the baby, police say.

She handed the child to the couple the same day, lying to them that the mother had died. She told the couple to leave the city immediately, which they did.

Rashmi was caught after a challenging investigation. “We interviewed 800 people for close to a year. We have gathered enough evidence, including bank statements, to prove that Rashmi is guilty,” says Pandey. The police plan a DNA test on the baby to confirm its biological mother.

Techies and hackers

On June 14, police received a complaint from Farooq, a retired SBI Bank Officer, who had been cheated after he got a call for KYC confirmation for an Airtel mobile number he used. “The caller asked him to download an app called ‘KYC Qs’ from PlayStore and took control of his mobile. The fraud then siphoned off Rs 5.87 lakh in ten transactions,” says C K Baba, deputy commissioner of police, north-east zone. He attributes the crime to ‘trained software professionals’ good at hacking. “They know computer software and speak good English. They communicate so well that you would never suspect they could trap you,” says Baba.

Cybercriminals target educated individuals, and in this case, it was a retired bank employee, he explains.

“We blocked the account and managed to retrieve Rs 4.8 lakh. We have information that the gang is from UP and we will be sending a team to nab them,” he says.

Engineers as cops

Two civil engineers were part of a four-member gang that allegedly feigned a police operation to rob a construction supervisor. Three of the four arrested for the incident were unemployed, and got into crime out of desperation, police say.

The drama unfolded recently at Kommaghatta near Kengeri, when engineers Sharath Shetty and Mohan flagged down two construction supervisors, Thappan Biswas and Thapas Rai. The engineers pretended to be policemen enforcing the lockdown. With Lingaraju and Purvik, they collected the supervisor’s wallet, mobile phone and ATM cards, and rode away on Biswas’s scooter, telling him to collect it from the Byadarahalli police station. Biswas rushed to the station, but no one there knew about his vehicle. He visited two other stations, and eventually lodged a complaint at the Kengeri police station.

Police say Biswas was robbed at the instance of his associate Thapas Rai, who allegedly planned the entire operation. C Vasanth, inspector at the Kengeri police station, told ‘Metrolife’: “Rai had befriended Biswas and knew he had a lot of money in his account.” The gang drew Rs 94,000 from Biswas’s account using Google Pay, and Rs 10,000 from an ATM.

Police have recovered the scooter and Rs 41,050. It took them four days, after the complaint was filed on May 26, to crack the case.

Dr Sanjeev Patil, deputy commissioner of police, West zone, says if policemen dressed in civilian clothes approach citizens, they must show their photo ID cards.

“The public must not blindly hand over their belongings to anybody who claims to be from the police department. If citizens suspect anything, they must immediately call 112 and alert the police,” he says.