In an ongoing drive against offenders in the Cyberabad Commissionerate, the Commissioner of Police has invoked the Preventive Detention act to arrest an alleged white collar offender named Koneru Anwesh, 28, an event manager residing at Bachupally.
Police said that the offender, a native of Warangal district and staying in Bachupally, used to search for ads in flatmates wanted groups on Facebook and directly go to the flats advertised. He would act as if he was interested in sharing the apartment, and win the confidence of the resident. He would then steal the wallet of the resident, which they generally keep on the table.
He would then make the resident believe that his phone didn't have signal as he was in roaming, and borrow their phone on the pretext of calling his parents. He would then walk some distance away and make calls to the phonebanking number of the resident's bank and select the IVR option for resetting the PIN, and enter the last four digits of the debit/credit cards which would be in the victim's wallet, and get a temporary PIN entering the OTP received on the resident's phone.
He would then hand over the phone to the resident and immediately go to the nearest ATM centre and withdraw the available amount in the account.
Anwesh was involved in seven cases this year under the limits of the Gachibowli, Madhapur and Miyapur police stations of the Cyberabad Police Commissionerate, and in the limits of the Banjara Hills police station of the Hyderabad Police Commissionerate.
This offender was arrested and cash of Rs 3,29,000, some debit and credit cards, and a Samsung J7 Pro phone were seized from his possession. His acts have been deemed prejudicial to the maintenance of public order, and he has been detained in prison to prevent him from committing more such offences.