A man allegedly robbed a city jeweller of gold worth ₹94 lakh by pretending to be a politician who was going to contest the Assembly elections from Mysuru.
In his complaint to the police, Dheeraj D.N. said the accused L. Somanna approached him in January with a purchase order for an event he was organising.
Somanna, who is from Chitradurga, was introduced to Dheeraj by his friend Suraj S. a few years ago. They had remained in touch since then. In January 2018, he brought up the fact that he was a prospective MLA candidate from Mysuru.
According to the police, Somanna told Dheeraj that he was organising a mass marriage in the run-up to the elections and placed an order for about 320 thaalis weighing five grams each, 20 gold biscuits weighing 20 grams each and 30 biscuits weighing 30 grams each. He told Dheeraj that he was going to gift the jewellery to dignitaries attending the mass marriage.
In his statement to the police, Dheeraj said he delivered the gold to Somanna at a cafe in Sadashivanagar. The conman promised to transfer the money to his account as soon as his loan application came through. “He had carried photocopies of his property documents, PAN card and other papers, and claimed that the loan was being processed,” police said.
However, soon after, Somanna disappeared and his phone remained switched off. After several attempts to track him down, Dheeraj lodged a complaint on February 21. The Basaveshwara Nagar police inspector said that a case has been registered under Section 420 (cheating).
