Mangaluru: A man from Hassan has filed a complaint with the CEN Police Station, accusing three persons of defrauding him of Rs. 40 lakh by promising his son a job as a village accountant.
He said that one of the accused claimed to be a CBI officer with strong political and bureaucratic contacts. As per the complaint, Nagabhushan from Bengaluru, Narayana Swamy from Vamanjoor in Mangaluru, Mahesh Bhat from Mulki near Mangaluru, and Dinesh from Moodbidre took Rs. 40 lakh from him.
According to sources, Darshan and three others, Hemavathi from Hassan, Lohith from Chikkamagauru, and Mohammad Sharif from Bengaluru, had met at a coaching centre in Bengaluru. They had applied for village accountant jobs in Bengaluru, Mysuru, Chikkamagaluru, and Hassan, respectively. Mahesh Bhat used to pay a visit to Sharif’s next-door neighbour Nirmala Venkataswamy.
When Sharif told Bhat that he and his friends had applied for a Village Accountant position, Bhat claimed that he knows a ‘CBI officer’ named Narayanaswamy who has contacts with important officials and politicians and that he would assist him to get the job. The four candidates went to Bhat’s house in Mulki in 2019 and met Narayanaswamy, who demanded Rs. 40 lakh from each of them.
Narayanaswamy assured them that the job will be done by Nagabhushan and Dinesh. Darshan paid Rs. 8 lakh in 2019 and then Rs. 32 lakh after seeing a fake appointment letter that he mistook for the real one. Darshan eventually realised it was a fake appointment letter and demanded the original appointment letter from the accused. The accused then threatened to kill them. The suspects have been charged under several IPC provisions, including 420 (cheating) and 465 (criminal conspiracy) (forgery).
