The Commisioner of Bengaluru Police, B Dayananda, held a press conference today, where he reported on the progress of various branches of the city police.
Incidents of human trafficking, insurance fraud, and theft were cases that the Bengaluru police said they are making substantial progress in solving.
After receiving many complaints regarding potential cases of human trafficking in spas, the departments of Bengaluru police conducted 21 raids across various such ‘parlours’ and rescued approximately 118 victims, the police commissioner said at a press conference today.
“We booked 39 culprits,” said Commissioner Dayananda.
Some of the culprits were foreign residents from countries such as Bangladesh and Thailand and the others were local residents as well as citizens from northern and north eastern states of India.
A spike in cyber crime fraud was also recorded, where people applying for tenders from the National E-governance Services Limited website were defrauded by scam artists posing as banking and insurance agents.
“We encountered 11 cases dealing with fraudulent agents and a sum of approximately Rs.168 crore was lost to these fraud cases,” Dayananda said.
Those who bid for government tenders need to submit a security deposit of 10 percent of the contract value, either as a Direct Deposit (DD) or in the form of a Bank Guarantee, he explained.
Two alleged scam artists posing as agents from Aditya Birla Insurance Limited, were identified by the police as having stolen approximately Rs. 5 crore from clients by posing as guarantors, he said.
One of them, who came from Noida was identified via a lookout circular and was arrested at the Delhi airport on 13 March 2024, he added.
“He never saw us coming,” Dayananda said. “Two laptops and six mobile phones were seized as evidence; he was completely oblivious to our investigation,” he added.
The other suspect was a foreign national and is in the process of being arrested, he said.
Another such case was solved where a man was arrested in Uttar Pradesh for defrauding 34 Bengaluru natives of Rs. 4.5 crore with a partner who worked as an engineer and set up a fake website for him, he said.
The police also reported success in solving many cases regarding theft, especially, gold and vehicles.
Dayananda further said the Rajajinagar police station reported recovering gold worth roughly Rs. 14.9 lakh from two accused from Tirupur, Tamil Nadu. They were arrested for pick-pocketing elderly women in annual festivals or Jatras.
The two women allegedly stole 230 grams of gold and were booked for seven separate cases of theft in Malleshwaram,Vyalikaval and Rajajinagar. One of the two already had a criminal record.
Another major case involved the busting of a network of criminals who systematically stole 23 motorcycles (including 10 Royal Enfields) for use in getaways after robbing banks and homes, so that those vehicles would not be traced back to them. They were identified and arrested through the use of Close Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras and the recovered vehicles amounted to around Rs. 50 lakh, Dayananda said.
Similarly, the Vidyaranyapura police station arrested three people in connection to a series of thefts occouring at night, where two wheelers and gold jewelry would be whisked away. They were charged with fifteen counts of theft.
He also reported progress in solving cases of laptop and mobile phone thefts.
The Whitefield police department and the HAL police department collaborated on the arrest of a woman who allegedly stole 24 laptops, which they recovered after the arrest.
She allegedly targeted paying guest (PGs) residences and hostels in the areas of Mahadevapura, Whitefield, Hebbal, Marathalli and the Tin Factory area.
“She tactfully lifted the laptops from the residents when they left their rooms for lunch or for an evening snack,” Dayanand said.
The 29-year-old accused formerly worked part-time at the Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation Of India bank (ICICI bank) and was identified via CCTV camera. She was arrested by HAL police station personell in September 2023. She had no prior records.
The Whitefield police recovered 20 mobile phones from pick pockets who targeted busy places such as metro stations and bus stands. They had a wide network and two were arrested in connection to the thefts. One of them had prior criminal records in Marathalli and Bellanduru.
While concluding the press conference, Dayananda emphasized the importance of being aware of one’s surroundings and proceeding cautiously when navigating physical and digital spaces.
He also urged citizens to upload their grievances regarding theft on online portals, such as their website and their ‘E-lost reports’ application.
