The Magadi Road police on Monday arrested a 44-year-old man who, posing as a doctor, allegedly cheated cab drivers with fake currency. The accused, identified as K.R. Sanjay, was caught based on a complaint filed by a cab driver from Kadri, Chandrashekhar M., who lost ₹10,500.
According to the police, the accused, posing as a doctor from a reputed hospital, hired a cab from Bengaluru to Kadri in Andhra Pradesh and on the way stopped the cab for dinner at a hotel near Magadi Road.
The accused later asked the driver for help in transferring ₹10,000 to his online account and offered to pay him cash. The police said that Mr. Chandrashekhar transferred the money to a number given by the accused, which happened to be the online payment number of the hotel where they were dining.
The accused went to the cashier and showed the transaction and got the cash while handing over the fake currency to the cab driver and escaped without even paying the bill of the food. The accused had even borrowed the phone of the driver and escaped leaving an old bag, said the police.
The cheating came to light when the driver waited for the accused and realized that he had escaped and later filed a complaint with the police.
Based on the complaint, a police team, led by Inspector Raju G.P., tracked down the accused and arrested him from his house at Tambaram in Chennai. The police recovered 21 fake notes of ₹500 denomination and nine mobile phones worth ₹90,000 from him.
The accused claimed to be practising Unani medicine, but his certificates and other documents were found to be fake and under verification, Mr. Raju said. The accused had allegedly confessed that he had cheated many people using similar modus operandi and had a cheating case pending in Siddapura police station in the city.
