Bengaluru: Claiming to be police chief’s aide, man tries to extort money

BENGALURU: A man has been arrested for allegedly making threat calls to a 52-year-old person for money. He claimed to be the personal staffer of the police commissioner.
Ganesh (name changed), resident of New BEL Road, filed a complaint against Kiran Gowda with Sadashivanagar police.
Ganesh said trouble began in May when he invested some money with a local finance firm but soon developed differences with the management.Ganesh requested the officials to return his deposit. When they refused, Ganesh approached police.
Meanwhile, Kiran Gowda introduced himself to Ganesh saying he’s a personal staffer at the commissioner’s office. “He claimed he’s a cousin of a Sandalwood hero and close relative of a member of Parliament,” Ganesh told TOI.
Ganesh, however, discovered that Kiran was a close associate of officials of the finance firm.
Kiran demanded Ganesh pay him Rs 2 lakh to settle the ‘matter’ with the firm. Ganesh ignored him initially. Last week, Kiran told Ganesh that a criminal case has been registered against him and demanded money to close it. Kiran did not share details of the case and Ganesh did not react, thinking he was playing a prank. “Kiran Gowda called me more than 33 times between July 26 and July 28, demanding Rs 2 lakh to close the criminal case. He is harassing me every day,” Ganesh told cops.
The case was transferred to Central Crime Branch (CCB) on Wednesday and by evening, sleuths detained Kiran Gowda.