The racket involving two men who were cheating realty firms with fake and inflated Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (Bescom) bills over the past two years has been busted. The utility’s vigilance wing has arrested the duo.
Though Bescom has not been cheated of any money in the fraud, its name and brand were being misused. The fraud was brought to light by an alert manager of Axis Bank, where the fraudsters had opened an account to transact the fake Bescom bills. Tipped off by this, Bescom vigilance department launched a probe and unearthed the scam.
Jagadeesh (35), an assistant electrical project manager with Salarpuria Group, was posted at a work site on Hosur Road. The work site had a temporary electricity connection that was regularly billed.
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Investigating officers said that Jagadeesh used to give the Bescom bill to his associate, Suresh Kumar, who in turn would create a fake inflated bill and return it to him. Then, Jagadeesh would issue a demand draft (DD) for the fake bill.
Suresh Kumar would credit the DD to an account in Axis Bank in the name of ‘M/S AEE S8 Sub-division Logic Tech Development’, which in reality was an account jointly handled by Suresh and Jagadeesh. Suresh Kumar would later buy another DD for the Bescom bill and make the payment, pocketing the difference amount. This modus operandi ensured that neither Bescom nor the firm were alerted of the fraud.
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The account was opened in 2013 and till date total transaction is put at Rs. 1.5 crore of which Rs. 1.2 crore was paid to Bescom, while Rs. 30 lakh was pocketed by the duo, according to investigating officers.
Other targets
Besides the Salarpuria Group, the duo have also cheated B.E. Bilimoria group and Neelanchal group to the tune of Rs. 7 lakh and Rs. 4 lakh respectively. Sleuths are probing as to who their associates were in these groups.