Man robs Bengaluru Ola driver after booking a cab with a stolen phone

The thief allegedly stole the cab driver's iPhone and Rs 5,000

news Crime

A man in possession of a mobile phone belonging to a woman in Kolar district, came to Bengaluru, turned it on and used it to book an Ola cab, and then robbed the cabbie of Rs 5,000 and his cellphone.

According to a report by the Times of India, the cab driver, Hemanth Kumar, filed a complaint at the Vidhana Soudha Police Station on Tuesday.

Hemanth, a resident of Kogilu Cross in Yelahanka, was in Fraser Town on Tuesday, when he accepted the accused’s call for cab ride to Infantry Road.

According to Hemanth’s complaint, the conman sat in the front seat, while speaking over his cellphone.

“I could hear him say that he could arrange for a loan from a bank at a low rate of interest. After the phone call, he told me that he was a manager at a bank and also asked me if I wanted a loan. I told him I wanted a Rs 10 lakh loan. We stopped a Shivajinagar and I made photocopies of my driver’s licence and my employment ID,” Hemanth’s complaint reads.

The con man had allegedly convinced Hemanth to pay Rs 10,000 initially. Hemanth then handed over Rs 2,500 cash he had and later stopped at an ATM and withdrew Rs 2,500 to pay the con man. Hemanth then promised to pay the balance with a couple of days.

The thief then told Hemanth to hand over his iPhone as he had to download a ‘bank loan app’ which only certain authorised persons at his office could do.

The thief then took Hemanth’s phone and entered a building on Ali Askar Road. After waiting for over two hours, Hemanth began suspecting that something was amiss.

Hemanth then tried to call his mobile from a passerby’s phone but it was switched off. He then filed a complaint at the Vidhana Soudha Police Station, after which the police filed a case of theft and cheating, and tracked down the con man’s phone to Kolar.

On Wednesday, the police went to Kolar, only to realise that the phone, from which the con man had booked the cab belonged to a teacher, who had lost her phone.

The police are looking for the unidentified con man, who is said to be in his early 20s.