Conman dies after jumping from second floor while he was in police custody

BENGALURU: A 63-year-old conman jumped to death from the second floor of an independent house when the police took him to spot mahazar in a case of cheating. The incident took place in Vidyaranyapura on Friday evening and Hanumanthanagar police had gone to his house when he went to the kitchen and jumped from the balcony.

The deceased has been identified as Siddalinga Swamy, a native of Malavalli and he was living in a rented house in Vidyaranyapura along with his family.

A senior police officer said that Swamy was involved in cheating case and he took Rs 13.29 lakh from Nagaraj, a resident of Hanumanthanagar in 2020. Swamy had claimed himself as an officer in BDA and promised that he would help Nagaraj to get a site in the city. Later Swamy started avoiding Nagaraj without returning money and also tried to create fake documents of a BDA site. Since then he was absconding and Hanumantnagar police were tracking his movements and he was arrested on February 24. As part of the investigation, police had taken him to conduct spot mahazar and recover some documents based on information given by him.

Around 3.45 pm police entered the house and Swamy ran inside the balcony attached to the kitchen and jumped. He fell on the ground and died on the spot. The police informed Vidyaranyapura police and the body was shifted for postmortem.

Based on a complaint a case of lock-up death has been registered and further investigations are on, the police officer said.