He took money after threatening to impound her passport

A conman, under the guise of a police officer, allegedly duped a 50-year-old professor of a private university in Bengaluru of ₹1 lakh by threatening to impound her passport.

According to the police, the professor P. Ray, a resident of Habitat Layout in Doddanekkundi, went to New Delhi to confirm that she had been duped before filing a complaint with the jurisdictional Mahadevapura police.

Ms. Ray, in her complaint filed on Sunday, said she received a call last Tuesday from man who introduced himself as Vinod Tyagi, an officer with the Delhi police.

Tyagi told Ms. Ray that there was a complaint against her regarding non-payment of international cellular mobile charges and that the police were going to summon her in three days after which her passport would be impounded.

The professor believed him as she travelled frequently and often used international roaming cards. “Ms. Ray told us that she tried to reason with Tyagi stating that she needed to visit the U.S. to attend her daughter’s convocation and had already planned her trip. However, Tyagi insisted that she would not be able to go unless she cleared her dues,” said a police officer.

The conman then shared a contact number of Jarjith Singh stating that he was an advocate handling the case. Ms. Ray called Singh who told her to pay ₹1.16 lakh in dues. The professor transferred ₹1 lakh to his account. The cheating came to light when Ms. Ray did not get any response from the authorities. She then went to Delhi only to learn that there was no case against her. The police are trying to track down the accused.