Fake police officer cheated three people outside Mysuru

MYSURU: Investigation in the impersonating police officer case has revealed that the accused Siddappa, 28, had cheated many more across the state. A native of Haveri, Siddappa blackmailed a policeman in Mysuru before making an unsuccessful bid to extort money from another man in the city, leading to his arrest.
He also cheated three people in Manvi (Raichur district), Chitradurga and Davanagere.In all the three cases, he gathered personal information of the victims by befriending them on Facebook. He posed as Bhavika, a girl, on the social networking site and started chatting with them in a female voice. After winning their confidence, Siddappa would visit the victims posing as Bhavika’s brother and a police officer before taking money from them. He used two mobile phones to dupe the victims.
According to Udayagiri police, Siddappa collected Rs 40,000 from a youth in Manvi on the pretext of getting him a job in the police department. While meeting the youth, he was in plainclothes and claimed to have links with the police recruitment board.
Siddappa cheated another youth from Chitradurga of Rs 25,000. He posed as Bhavika to befriend the youth on Facebook. Siddappa then met the youth, posing as Bhavika’s brother, and threatened, him claiming that he was cheating Bhavika. He blackmailed the youth to give him Rs 25,000.
A few months ago, Siddappa cheated a cop in Davanagere, cooking up an accident story to collect Rs 2 lakh from the victim for treatment. He had been interreacting with the cop, posing as a police officer from Bengaluru.
Jayakeerthi, a sub-inspector attached to Udayagiri police station, said, “So far, he has revealed three other cases outside Mysuru. We don’t know how many other cases he is involved in.”