The Chickballapur police on Wednesday arrested two persons, who allegedly posed as officials from the Land Acquisition Department of the National Highways Authority of India and cheated a landlord promising compensation.
Based on a complaint by the victim, Srinivasa Reddy, the police registered a case on August 23 and tracked down Syed Mubarak, 34, from Attibele and his associate Akram Pasha, from Anekal. The police also recovered ₹1.2 lakh from them.
According to the police, the duo had approached Mr. Reddy, promising to get him ₹28 lakh compensation for the land which was being acquired for a national highway.
The duo asked him to pay a sum of ₹1.6 lakh towards various fees and also to buy bond paper to apply for the compensation.
Based on the complaint, the police tracked down the accused through their mobile phone. During investigation, the police came to know that the accused had purchased a pre-activated SIM card of Assam from a shop in Hosur.
The police suspect it to be a racket for selling pre-activated SIM cards from other States in Tamil Nadu and in and around Bengaluru to be used for anti-social activities.
The police have stepped up the investigation to track down the shop owner who sold the SIM card to Mubarak. The accused told the police that they had been advised to destroy the SIM card after using it, a police officer said.
