Conman Poses As Excise Officer, Woos Woman In Bus And Steals Her iPhone

This comes straight from an Indian film where a conman impersonates a police officer to dupe people. However, the difference here is that he just did that to get an iPhone that was already being used by the victim.

According to a TNN report, the complainant and the conman met on a city bus. Some days later, he took her to a jewellery showroom to celebrate their courtship by gifting her an ornament. The man who introduced himself to the woman as an excise officer from Telangana, however, fled from the shop with the woman¡¯s iPhone and a gold chain he said he wanted to buy for her.

Acting on a complaint from the 28-year-old woman, who was initially thought to be the suspect by the showroom management and the jeweller, police tracked down Abul Mubarak, the alleged conman, after five months of hot pursuit.

Police officers said the Parappana Agrahara resident is a mechanic and not a Telangana excise officer as he had claimed, and that he is married with two children.

According to the woman, Mubarak and she became friends on February 4 while travelling in a BMTC bus heading towards Electronics City from Majestic. The woman is a JP Nagar resident and works in the hospitality industry. ¡°The man was sitting next to me in a khaki uniform and held a Telangana government ID card. I told him that my uncle is a police officer in that state. He said he worked with the excise department and had no friends in the police department. We soon became friends and exchanged numbers. While getting off the bus, he told me that he is a simple officer and preferred public transport to an office car,¡± she told police.

On February 8, the man told the woman he is a bachelor and his mother was forcing him to get married. ¡°At first sight, I realised you are my life partner. Please accept me,¡± he WhatsApped her. The woman replied said yes the same night, cops added. ¡°The next morning, he took me to a jewellery showroom on DVG Road, Basavanagudi, and asked me to select a gold chain.

Representational Image

I chose one and using my mobile he clicked my photo. Saying he wants to click a selfie in a better light, he walked out with my phone and the chain but didn¡¯t return. I dialled my mobile number from the shop¡¯s landline, but it was switched off. I filed a police complaint on realising I had been duped,¡± the woman said in her complaint.

Had duped another woman

The accused was taken into custody soon after he landed in the city from Mumbai, where he had been staying with a friend. ¡°During interrogation, Mubarak confessed to have cheated another woman in Mumbai in a similar way. There, however, security guards of the jewellery shop caught him while he tried to escape in a similar fashion. He was arrested and released on bail recently,¡± police said.