Chittoor police on Tuesday nabbed a 39-year-old man, wanted on charges of cheating as many as 350 customers in the guise of running a tele-business, at Chittoor-Vellore road.
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A BMW car, 28 mobile phones, ₹53,000 in cash and a computer were seized from the accused, who was identified as Venkatesan, hailing from Ambur in Vellore district of neighbouring Tamil Nadu. A woman accomplice of Venkatesan was also taken into custody.
Addressing a press conference here, Deputy SP (Crime) K. Srinivasa Murthy said that the accused had cheated many customers. His modus operandi was to float unauthorised business outlets at rural areas and clandestinely operate tele-businesses, hiring unemployed women. The role of the women staff would be call people randomly, and offering them expensive gadgets and mobile phones at one-fifth of their original price telling them that their numbers were selected after a lottery.
The callers were successful in convincing some people to sign up for their products, and would ask for an advance payment. After that, the customers would be sent ‘parcels’ through India Post from Krishnagiri in Tamil Nadu. Inside the parcels, however, would be wastepaper or bricks.
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The accused allegedly amassed lakhs of rupees in this manner. He used to pay nominal salaries to his staff, it is learnt.
In this process, a youth of Irala near Chittoor was delivered a parcel which was stuffed with brick chips instead of a mobile phone on October 7. After a complaint was lodged with Chittoor-West police, Superintendent of Police S. Senthil Kumar formed a special party to track down the accused.
With the help of cell phone signals, Venkatesan was nabbed at PVKN Government College junction on the outskirts of Chittoor while he was moving towards Vellore. During interrogation, it was revealed that he had cheated around 350 customers in this manner in this year alone.
It is learnt that the accused was into this trade for the past five years. In recent months, he had floated offices in Bangarupalem and Chittoor. Criminal cases under various sections of IPC were booked against him and he was later sent to remand.