Man held for stealing cellphones

Police today arrested a man for allegedly posing as the father of a prosperous groom to trick parents of girls in pretext of marriage alliance and steal their mobile phones.
The accused Mohammad Sadiq alias Abdullah has allegedly cheated more than 100 people in such manner, police said today.
Abdullah was apprehended last evening by Tappachabutra Police on a tip-off and 85 cell phones were seized from him.
Explaining Abdulla's modus operandi, police said he would pose as father of an affluent suitor and trick members of rich families and would walk away with their mobile phones.
Abdullah would seek alliance of girls from influential families by posing himself as a close relative and business partner of a well known jewellery shop owner in the city, police said.

He would claim that his "son" works in a reputed software firm or doing medicine and is drawing hefty pay package to gain confidence of the unsuspecting victims.

He would then invite a member of such families to meet him at a mosque or other such sacred places by keeping Namaz timings in mind, under the pretext of taking the alliance forward, said DCP (West Zone) V Satyanarayana.
"According to plan, Abdullah used to invite such persons to offer Namaz in mosque. And there he would pretend making a phone call to his son. Pretending as if there was some network problem Abdullah would ask for the person's cellphone," he said.

The victims would hand over their phones to Abdullah who would scoot from the spot, the officer said, adding, that in the process the accused has cheated more than hundred people, the DCP added.