Cabbie's Plan to Extort Money By Eavesdropping
That night, two city constables were patrolling the airport road when they saw five or six cab drivers sitting on the footpath drinking alcohol and gambling. When police went to the gamblers, everyone ran away leaving the money at stake. The two found were brought to police station, when both of them were interrogated and searched, seven or eight receipts were found in the pocket of a 35-year-old cab driver named Kishore Kumar, who had 960 gram pawned gold jewellery in the famous finance company. Suspicious police questioned Kishore he remained silent. When asked in their typical police style, he said, I was working in a transport company in a remote district and wanted to have my own vehicle. A Swift car was for sale which had been seized by the bank, and bought it with a loan from them. Then came to this city and became a cab driver for food and Ola companies, one day I picked up a 40 year old woman Sangeeta from a area in the city. She had to be dropped at her office which was 25 km away. As soon as she got into the vehicle, she took out her phone and called her friend Manohar and talked to him for a long time, I carefully listened to her conversation.
She was an engineer in an IT company. She met her classmate Manohar a week ago at her college's alumni association function. During that meeting, Sangeeta came to know that Manohar had divorced his wife. Sangeeta started talking about her marriage and how she was being tortured by in-laws and husband. Sangeetha told Manohar that she was contemplating separation and even sought his help to introduce to a lawyer. She ends her call by saying that they will meet face to face soon. Meanwhile her stop arrived. Kishore approached her and told her to call him directly whenever she needs a cab, and told her that he lives near to her house and he will take lower price than the cab, she agreed. So Sangeetha and Kishore shared numbers. For the next month Sangeeta was calling Cab driver directly and he used to pick her up and drop her at the place as she told, Kishore came to know that she was a rich lady. Meanwhile, cab driver’s financial situation became very bad. That moment Kishore was struggling to match the money. Then he got the idea to embezzle Sangeeta's money. As per plan, he bought a new SIM card, called woman by posing as Manohar and told her he had got a new number to interact with her. And told her that he has spoke to his lawyer about Sangeetha’s request for a divorce. So Sangeetha thought cab driver was her friend Manohar and said she would contact him after a week.
Two days later he called her as Manohar from the new number. Kishore spoke to Sangeetha as Manohar and he is in big trouble, he need urgently 20 lakhs. He told he will return it with interest as soon as possible. She agreed. The next day cab driver called her again and told her that he would send his driver as he was unable to come and instructed her to pay him. She agreed. Cab driver instructed one of his friends to go to her house and collect the money. He took the money. After this cab driver repeatedly asked her for money. She used to give money to the friend he used to send. She said that after giving a total loan of 45 lakhs, she have no more money. Then he asked for Rs 5 lakh as final installment. She agreed. Cab driver's friend was not available at that time to collect money from her so cab driver Kishore himself went to her house to fetch money, as soon as he went to her and asked for money, she was surprised...!!!!!!!! Why did you come here? What is your relationship with Manohar? She asked several questions about Manohar. When he did not give a suitable answer, she went to call Manohar. Then cab driver had to tell the truth. Cab driver said that he was the one who was talking to her on phone till then as Manohar. She got angry and said that if he don't return her jewellery immediately, she will file a police complaint against him.
Kishore, a cab driver started blackmailing her, stating that he would speak to her husband and reveal everything to him, he threatened. Sangeeta was shocked on hearing this. Following this he started asking for more money, when she had no money left with her he told her to give gold ornaments. So she gave him 8 jewels over time. Kishore pawned all of them in finance and took the money. Surprised by Kishore's cunning, the police got Sangeeta's address from him and contacted her. She was very scared and was not ready to talk to the police. She said if she complain to police about this, her marriage will surely break instantly. Her persuasion was enough to get the police to tell her what happened. Finally she gave her statement. Based on that, the police registered a case of extortion and arrested Kishore and recovered all the jewellery he had hidden and 2 lakh of rupees. Cash was seized. When Sangeeta said that she could not bear Kishore’s harassment and tried to commit suicide, the police not only counselled her but also took her husband into confidence and counselled both husband and wife. As a result of this, the husband and wife decided to forget their animosity and live amicably. The action of the police in this case not only saved a person's life but also saved her marriage. Kishore is now in judicial custody. A court hearing is pending. (1)
This incident teaches us people should avoid discussing their personal problems in calls in public places. In case of sensitive discussion prefer text messages. While we are busy in describing our problem to our friends or family members, someone unknown may hear our conversation and take advantage of it. In public places be cautious about your activities, else it will end up in trouble. The case is cautionary tale, urging everyone of us to prioritize safety and take measures to protect ourselves and others from potential harm. Government and cab company also should ensure the drivers to understand the gravity of such actions and adhere to strict rules, this can prevent future incidents of this nature.
Reference
1] Dr.D.V Guruprasad, 2023 September 17, “ಅಪರಿಚಿತರೆದುರು ಎಚ್ಚರ”, A Kshana, Vijayavani, Bengaluru, Page No-VI
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