Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru

Bengaluru, Mar 5: The Bengaluru police are on a lookout for conmen trio who have fooled several South Bengaluru residents as godmen and decamped with their valuables.

The accused identified as Avinash Suresh Khanvilkar alias Guruji, Chetan Dange alias Maharaj and Rajesh Tambe, use the same modus operandi to lure their victims.

According to the police, the conmen identify their victims and does thorough background research on them such as illness in the family, children and their whereabouts etc.

This information is used gain the trust of the victims, who believe that the trio dressed as godmen is experts in astrology and palmistry. The fake godmen then offer to solve the issues with special pujas.

For the pujas they ask the victims to get gold jewellery which is promptly returned back. This step convinces the victims that the godmen are genuine.

When the victims approach the conmen again, they would suggest another puja and this time ask them to get all their jewellery. They also make the victim transfer their fee to their accounts through online transaction or UPI. After the puja, the trio would vanish with all valuables and efforts to reach them on phone would be futile.

A victim from Banashankari III stage said that he believed in the conmen as they had correct information about the issues he is facing. He lost 170 grams of gold and Rs 1.75 lac which he paid to them on various occasions.

Another victim Suraj from Revenue Layout lost 63 grams of gold and Rs 18,000 in cash and Karthik from the same locality were cheated of Rs 50,000 and 292 grams of gold.

The Chennammanakere Achukattu police have registered as many as three cases against the accused. However, the cops believe that several residents are cheated but have not come forward to complaint.