Hyderabad: A 30-year-old farmer exploited the human element of others and cheated hundreds asking them to recharge his mobile phone saying that he had lost his way in a forest area.Rachakonda SOT police arrested K. Venkata Swamy on Wednesday.
Police said that Venkata Swamy, 30, belonging to Wanaparthy district, stopped education after SSC and started farming. He had two Airtel prepaid SIM cards.
A few months ago, when he did not have money to recharge his mobile phone he asked his friend to help and he recharged one of the numbers. After this he realised that anybody can recharge his prepaid SIM from anywhere. This planted an idea in his mind and he cheated hundreds who were willing to help.
Police said that Venkata Swamy started calling up random numbers and tell those who answer his call that he had lost his way in the forest and his mobile phone had no balance to make calls. He requests the other person to recharge with some amount so that he can contact his family and reach home safely.
“Believing him to be a bonafide person in need many people recharged his phone number and some of them even shared his mobile number to friends and relatives. The amounts recharged ranged from Rs 50 to Rs 220,” SOT inspector K. Narsing Rao said.
Alerted by the media, Rachakonda police commissioner Mahesh Bhagawat ordered an inquiry and after verifying evidence, police arrested him.
Police found that from December 28, 2016 till Wednesday there were 527 messages from Airtel to his number and most of them were recharge confirmation messages sent by the service provider to his mobile phone number.
Police said they have asked Airtel to provide the history of his mobile phone number for investigation. Police also found that he was earlier arrested in 2012 for a similar offence in Srisailam. Venkataswamy was remanded to custody.
