Man held for duping relatives of missing persons

A 26-year-old man was today arrested for duping people by promising to give them information about their missing relatives before doing a vanishing act.
The officers of Commissioner's Task Force (West Zone) nabbed S Shiva Kumar, a native of Bengaluru, who allegedly cheated around 70 persons from across the country in the last one-and-a-half-years.
According to a police release, Kumar used to obtain phone numbers of relatives from the 'missing person' posters pasted on the walls of public buildings or at railway stations, etc.
He then used to call the person's relatives, and told them that he knew the missing person and if he was paid, he would tell them the person's whereabouts.

The accused accepted the money through a mobile application.
Once the money was deposited, he used to discard his SIM card and cut off contact with the victims. In some cases, he also threatened to cause harm to the missing person if the relatives did not pay up.
Many of these victims were from Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Chennai, Bengaluru and Lucknow.