Over 1,000 people duped on pretext of EV scooter sale; 2 K'taka men among 20 held

Twenty people were arrested from three states for allegedly duping over 1,000 people in the garb of selling electric scooters, police said on Monday.

Of the accused, 11 from Bihar, four from Telangana, three from Jharkhand and two from Karnataka, they said.

The victims were initially asked to make an online payment of Rs 499 towards registration and were later told to transfer money for transportation and vehicle insurance among others.

After receiving the money, they used to tell the victims that there would be a delay in delivery of the vehicles and fool them, police said.

The accused have been identified as TV Venkatachala (35), Nagesh SP (31), Sushant Kumar (22), Rajesh Kumar (29), Aman Kumar (25), Anish (26), Bittu (27), Sanni (22), Nawlesh Kumar (22), Adaitya (22), Vivek Kumar (25), Murari Kumar (38), Ajay Kumar (19), Abinash Kumar (22), Prince Kumar Gupta (37), Vadithya Chinna (22), Anand Kumar (21), Katravath Shiva Kumar (22), Katravath Ramesh (19) and G Srinu (21).

The fraud came to light based on a complaint by a person who alleged that he had lost Rs 30,998 to the fraud. The police traced one of the suspects to Bengaluru. His interrogation exposed the entire gang.

Seven laptops, 38 smart phones, 25 basic phones, two hard discs, two smartwatches and 114 sim cards were recovered from their possession, the police said.