Conmen pose as ACB; target BESCOM officials to extort money

A group of conmen posing as ACB officials threaten to conduct raids, aiming to extort money from government officers in order to avoid them in Karnataka.

A group of conmen are reportedly posing as Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) officials in Karnataka in the backdrop of several raids conducted by them recently in the hope to extort money. These conmen are reported to be on a hunt for various government officials in the state, this time, targeting BESCOM officials.

A group of conmen posing as ACB officials threaten to conduct raids, aiming to extort money from government officers. (AARP Photo)

Most recently, Shanthamallappa S T, a superintendent engineer of the Bangalore Electricity Supply Company Ltd (BESCOM) was targeted by the fraudsters, who called him last week to warn that an ACB raid will happen soon. The fraudsters have also demanded Rs. 1.44 lakhs from the engineer in order to avoid the raid.

An FIR has been registered in the matter by the Halasuru Gate Police on Friday last week, who are also conducting a probe.

“Shanthamallappa received a call on Thursday night last week on his mobile phone from a man who identified himself as Ravishankar, the Deputy SP of the ACB. The fake ACB official said he will raid his house,” the police told a news website.

The police added, “He told Shanthamallappa to apply for casual leave on a particular day to coordinate with the raid and also gave him an option to transfer Rs. 1.44 lakh in two instalments of Rs. 72,000 to an online account in order to stop the raid.”

Shanthamallappa then told the fraudsters that he would not be able to transfer the amount, to which the conmen asked him to hand over the cash physically at the head office. Shanthamallappa however informed his seniors at BESCOM about the incident immediately, and found out that they too had received similar calls from the ACB, wherein officials would demand money to avoid raids.

According to reports, the police are now trying to track down the conmen from the mobile number they used to call the officials.

In a similar instance in March, the High Grounds Police had arrested three persons who posed as ACB officials and successfully duped Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) engineers, extorting Rs. 10 lakhs from them. The ACB has warned government officials in this matter not to entertain calls from people claiming to be a part of the bureau and report such suspicious calls to the police instead.

The ACB has conducted three raids in March alone, targeting various departments of the state government, from the BDA to the Karnataka Administrative Service (KAS).