Karnataka - Bangalore

Seven held for mobile tower scam

BANGALORE: The New Delhi police, with the assistance of their Bangalore counterparts, arrested seven persons from the national capital who had allegedly cheated several people in Karnataka by claiming that they required land on rental basis for installing mobile phone towers for Airtel.

They were: Manoj Kumar Sharma (38), Rajendra Kumar (28), Krishna Kumar (34), Sanjay Kumar (22), Ruchika Yada (23), Neha Grover (23) and Asha Lutra (27).The police said the New Delhi-based gang, which was running a bogus company, had advertised in leading publications stating that they needed space for installing Airtel mobile phone towers on rooftops, plots and agricultural lands. They had offered to pay a monthly rent of Rs. 20,000.

Several people responded to the advertisements and also paid application fee of Rs. 2,000. The accused sent sanction orders to the applicants along with cheques for rent for one year. They asked the applicants to pay two months rent as deposit and encashed the cheques they received. However, the cheques issued by the accused to the applicants bounced, the police said.

The victims lodged complaints at several places police stations in Karnataka, including one in Kamakshipalya police station in Bangalore. Realising the seriousness of the issue, Director-General and Inspector-General of Police K.R. Sreenivasan and Bangalore Police Commissioner Neelam Achuta Rao instructed the Central Crime Branch to investigate the matter.

Subsequently, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Gopal B. Hosur got in touch with the Crime Branch in New Delhi and information was exchanged between the two police units. On September 3, the Inter-State Crime Branch of New Delhi raided the office of the accused.

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