Chittoor, Dec 22 (IANS): The police in Andhra Pradesh's Chittoor district have arrested a conman from Tamil Nadu on Tuesday for setting up a fake tele-calling office and mailing bricks instead of the electronic gadgets he promised his clients at a discounted price.
C. Venkateshan, 39, was arrested at 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday from the P.K.V.N. degree college in Chittoor town under IPC Sections 419 and 420, among others.
Incidentally, Venkateshan from Puduru of Amburu taluka in Vellore district was addicted to an extravagant life and resorted to this fraudulent activity to fund his lavish lifestyle.
"He hired some women as tele-callers and made them contact some people and promised them that their cellphone numbers were shortlisted in a lucky draw, which has earned them a gift pack worth Rs 15,000 which can be procured by paying just Rs 3,000," said a police officer.
In the gift pack, he promised the gullible people a smartphone, power bank, power saver and a smart watch.
On getting enticed by his 'attractive' offer, people paid him the money but would not receive the gadgets.
Meanwhile, Venkateshan would collect that money and pay some part of it as salary to the women he hired and splurge the balance on himself.
"He rented a portion from Kamalapati Naidu on MBT Road in Bangarupalya and ran the tele-calling centre by the name Sri Sai Health and Wealth Care Company," said the officer.
He also set up a couple more offices in Girimpeta in Chittoor town.
Venkateshan hired one Sumalatha and appointed her as office in-charge to carry out his fake scheme which saw about 350 people falling for it.
On receiving the money from the gullible customers, he used to substitute some useless things into the parcels.
He tried the same trick on G. Naveen from Eedigapalli of Irala mandal, and sent him a few pieces of brick. Naveen lodged a complaint with the police which eventually enabled them to crackdown on Venkateshan.
The police seized 28 cellphones, monitors, printers, CPUs, modems, Rs 53,000 in cash and a BMW luxury car from the accused who was running this scheme for the past five years.