Daijiworld Media Network - Puttur (SP)
Puttur, Nov 21: A racket that has been trying to lure farmers by offering to build mobile towers in their land and luring them with the offer of high rent, was stopped from succeeding in its purpose, thanks to an alert farmer from Barya village near Uppinangady in the taluk.
Raveendra, the farmer in question, lost only Rs 4,450 as a result. He had received a message on his mobile phone from Essar Towers Enterprises at Meena Bazaar Bikaner, Rajasthan, seeking to know whether he has agricultural land measuring 2.50 cents for building a mobile tower for MTS 3G network. It offered to pay Rs 90,000 as advance, Rs 55 lac as compensation, and Rs 25,000 salary per month for one person per month.
After Raveendra provided details of his survey number, he received calls on which he was lured with a better offer compared to the previous one. He was told that the firm had checked his land ownership through the internet and that the company is prepared to accept this land. It said that the farmer has to initially remit Rs 4450 into the savings bank account of the company with State Bank of India to enable it to send some records. Later, the farmer received two envelopes through registered post in which receipt for the money remitted, acceptance letter, and no-objection letter purportedly issued by the ministry of telecom and information technology, application form of Essar Towers, photo of proposed tower, insurance application for Rs 20 lac with National Insurance Company, and some such papers were received.
The conversation over cellphone as well as correspondence were in Hindi. Raveendra thereafter received another message in his cellphone, asking him to deposit Rs 51,250 into the said account. Growing suspicious about the entire deal, Raveendra contacted a person named Anoop Singh from Rajasthan who runs a shop at Uppinangady and Anil D'Costa of Airtel, both of whom advised him against remitting the money. Anoop contacted his friends in Rajasthan, gave them the cellphone number of the above company, and asked them to call the company and talk to them. He also told them to offer to personally visit the company's office and deposit the money.
The woman who received the call told them that money can be deposited only through the bank and not personally. When the lady was asked to refund Rs 4,450 remitted earlier, she promised to oblige. But thereafter, the cellphone has remained switched off, it is gathered.