Karthik Addagarla

Sampigehalli

Calcutta

Jyothi Lamba

The police arrested a 28-year-old notorious inter-state online conman, who would borrow expensive cameras and lens on rents using social media platforms and escape without returning them. Later, the accused would sell it online for cheaper prices.According to police, over 20 cases have been registered against the The accused, identified as, a native of Telangana, across the country.Karthik is an engineering graduate and would reportedly borrow expensive cameras and lens on rents from its owners using rentshare.com. He would then place an advertisement on online portals and would sell equipment for cheaper prices. Despite being an engineering graduate, the accused claimed that he was out of job since 2013 and started cheating people to source money for his gambling activities.Thepolice, which made the arrest, recovered cameras and lenses worth Rs 12.03 lakh from him. According to police, cases have been registered against Karthik in Mumbai police, West Bengal, Hyderabad and Goregaon (Mumbai). Mumbai. The accused, the police said, duped people in Chennai, Hyderabad, Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and other places.Karthik would stay at reputed hotels across the country after every successful cheating. The accused’s father, a retired Navy officer and his mother, a retired bank official, reside at Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh. His parents are said to have spent all their retirement benefits by returning money to over 20 victims of the accused. “The accused claims that he is an alumnus of IIM-, which is being verified. He operates with a gang of nearly three to four people, including a woman. Some of his gang members are identified as Krish and. It is said that he borrowed equipment, worth nearly Rs 80 lakh, from various people and duped them. While dealing with the victims, he claims that he is a traveller and also has an Instagram handle- travelwithkarthik. He often changes his identity and to some victims he has claimed to be a photographer,” said an officer on part of investigations.The city police are now finding out the other cases registered against Karthik. He had been previously arrested by the Andhra Pradesh police in a similar cheating case.