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Bengaluru: A 75-year-old paddu vendor, who continued working despite his advanced age to save money for his own last rites, was allegedly cheated of Rs 1.9 lakh and a mobile phone by a 35-year-old woman who posed as a police officer and promised to help him recover his wife’s missing gold chain. After gaining his confidence, she allegedly collected around Rs 40,000 from him over the next three months, citing various reasons, including the need to pay local police personnel in Hosur. Begur police have registered a case under Section 318 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) for cheating.
His children live separately from him due to personal reasons, and he did not want them to bear the financial burden of performing his last rites.
Who runs a paddu stall on 16th Main Road in Mico Layout, the woman, identified as Siva Rani, a resident of the same locality, first visited his stall around three months ago, according to a complaint filed by Sriramulu Naidu. During their conversations, Naidu told her that his wife’s gold chain had gone missing at Hosur bus stand around six months ago and that they had lodged a complaint with the jurisdictional police. Naidu said the money was meant to meet his funeral expenses after his death. A senior police officer said Rani was absconding and that efforts were under way to apprehend her.
Introducing herself as a police officer, she struck up conversations with him during subsequent visits and gradually gathered his personal details. During one of her initial visits, Rani allegedly wore a khaki-coloured sari, similar to those worn by women police constables, to lend credibility to her claim of being a police officer. Rani allegedly claimed that her brother worked at a court and assured Naidu that she could help recover the chain by using her contacts. Despite his advanced age, he had continued running the stall to save money for this purpose.
Naidu has been deeply distressed by the loss and even attempted to end his life by consuming an excessive number of pills, according to his family members.