Mangaluru: Trio dupes man of Rs 40 lakh promising village accountant job

MANGALURU: As the PSI recruitment scam is raging, a man from Hassan has lodged a complaint with the CEN police station here, accusing three people of taking Rs 40 lakh from him with the promise of getting a job of village accountant for his son.

He complained that one of the accused claimed himself to be a CBI officer with high contacts with politicians and bureaucrats. The complainant, Krishna Gowda, father of Darshan, stated that Nagabhushan from Bengaluru, Narayana Swamy from Vamanjoor in Mangaluru, Mahesh Bhat from Mulki near Mangaluru and Dinesh from Moodbidre took Rs 40 lakh from him.

Darshan and three others -- Hemavathi from Hassan, Lohith from Chikkamagauru and Mohammad Sharif from Bengaluru -- had met at a coaching centre in Bengaluru. They had applied for the post of village accountant in Bengaluru, Mysuru, Chikkamagaluru and Hassan respectively. Mahesh Bhat used to visit the house of Nirmala Venkataswamy, who is Sharif ’s neighbour.

An accused claimed he was a CBI officer: Plaint

When Sharif told Bhat that he and his friends have applied for a VA job, the latter claimed that he knows a ‘CBI officer’ named Narayanaswamy, who has high contacts with top officials and politicians and he would help him get the job. In 2019, the four VA aspirants visited the house of Bhat in Mulki and met Narayanaswamy, who asked them to pay Rs 40 lakh each.

Narayanaswamy told them that he would get the job done through Nagabhushan and Dinesh. Darshan paid Rs 8 lakh in 2019 and then Rs 32 lakh after he was shown a fake appointment letter which he believed to be true. However, after sometime, Darshan realised that it was a fake appointment letter and demanded the accused for the original appointment letter. Then the accused threatened to kill them. The accused have been booked under various IPC sections, including 420 (cheating) and 465 (forgery).