Unidentified trickster extorts money by claiming kin has suffered accident

Nagpur: An unidentified trickster has been cheating acquaintances by posing as a cop and extorting substantial amount by threatening to cause harm to their kin, who are usually travelling. The series of incidents came to light when a woman approached Ajni police station to lodge a complaint.

Complainant, 30-year-old Kalpana Wasnik, claimed her elder brother Santosh Bhadke, a cloth wholesaler, had left for Hyderabad from Wasnik’s place at Bhagwan Nagar a couple of days ago. On Saturday afternoon, Wasnik received a call on her cell phone from an unknown number.

The unidentified caller identified himself as a cop and informed Wasnik that Bhadke had been seriously injured when the bus in which he was travelling to Hyderabad met with a accident. The ‘cop’ also informed her that injured passengers had been admitted to a hospital at Omerga in Latur district.

The trickster added that doctors will not treat him until the hospital charges are paid. He claimed that though he was a cop, the doctors were refusing to start treatment. He told Wasnik to transfer Rs40,000 otherwise Bhadke wouldn’t survive the serious injuries he had suffered.

Wasnik told cops that the trickster was continuously warning her that her brother would die. So, she got his bank details and transferred the amount. However, surprisingly, by evening, she got a call from Bhadke that he was all right and was busy in his work.

Senior PI SS Sankhe told TOI, “As soon as we received the complaint, we took call data records of the unknown number and spoke to 20 persons, who claimed to have been duped by the impostor. Our team has established his identity but will not disclose it till we nab him.”

Cops have registered an offence of putting in fear of injury in order to commit extortion under section 385 of IPC against the trickster.