The Cyber Crime Police of Mangaluru City Police on Tuesday arrested a 23-year-old man from Chitradurga district on the charge of cheating gullible public using social media platforms by creating over 20 fake Facebook accounts.
The police gave the name of the accused as Parameshwarappa alias Param, son of Rangappa, resident of Kurubarahalli village, Hosadurga taluk, Chitradurga district. After being produced before the jurisdictional magistrate, he was handed over to police custody to undergo COVID-19 test, Commissioner of Police Vikash Kumar Vikash said in an official release here on Thursday.
It all started with a complaint from N. Sri Harsha, Senior Superintendent of Posts, Mangaluru, to the Cyber Crime Police on December 2 that Parameshwarappa had sought an alliance with a girl from Goa, claiming that he was a senior postal officer working in Mangaluru. He had also shared two videos claiming to be a recipient of the Rajyotsava award and the Meghdoot award with her family.
When the girl’s family did a cross check with the Mangaluru Postal Department, it was revealed that Parameshwarappa was not a postal employee in Mangaluru. Accordingly, Mr. Harsha filed the complaint seeking action for impersonation against him.
Again on December 20, the Cyber Crime Police received complaints from two constables attached to the City Armed Reserve Police, Mangaluru, that Parameshwarappa had cheated them of about ₹ 6 lakh promising Group A and B posts with India Post by projecting himself as a senior postal officer.
Both the cases were taken up for investigation by the Cyber Crime Police Inspector B.C. Girish under the guidance of Mr. Vikash and Deputy Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Hariram Shankar. Upon learning that both the cases were interconnected, Mr. Girish along with his personnel secured Parameshwarappa at the Bejai KSRTC Terminal on Tuesday.
During initial inquiry, Parameshwarappa revealed that he had created 20 fake FB profiles under different names with an intention to cheat people.
He would befriend senior officials with various departments on FB to lend credence to his story and pretend to be a senior Postal Department official. So far, he had cheated 13 people to the tune of ₹15 lakh to ₹20 lakh, Mr. Vikash said.
Police have seized a laptop, five mobile phones, duplicate identity cards of the Postal Department and a debit card.
