Complaint registered against fraudster posing as Lokayukta

BENGALURU: A complaint has been registered against a man for posing as Lokayukta Justice and government officials to blackmail and extort money from unsuspecting people.

The culprit used Truecaller to display a judge’s name, making the calls seem legitimate. He would threaten that corruption is rampant in a particular department and would conduct a raid on the office of the receiver of the call.

The fraudster would get complete information about the field in which the officials work. He introduced himself as Lokayukta Justice B S Patil and Upa Lokayukta Phanindra. The government officials would receive the calls thinking it was important, and then the fraudster would come to know what was going on in the department where they work, would later threaten them that they have been involved in bribes.

Then the fraudster started demanding money to prevent the Lokayukta raid. Similarly, an unknown person who called a Government Executive Engineer (AEE) was also threatened. Venkatesh verified the number with the Lokayukta office and found it wasn’t genuine. Suspicious of this, he went directly to the Lokayukta office and informed them.

At this time, it was found that the number from which the call was made did not belong to Justice B S Patil or Upa Lokayukta Phanindra. It has been learned that blackmail is being done using the name of the justices. The Lokayukta Inspector has filed a complaint.