Mysore/Mysuru: Miscreants, who threatened an engineer in the guise of Mumbai Police of transporting drugs through courier, have extorted Rs. 5 lakh from him and a case has been registered at Yelwal Police Station.

The engineer, who was extorted Rs. 5 lakh by the miscreants is 40-year-old Puneeth (name changed), a resident of a layout near Kumarabeedu in Yelwal.

About a week ago, Puneeth got a call on his mobile phone and the caller on the other end, who spoke in English, told Puneeth that he was from Mumbai Police Department. He then told Puneeth that a courier sent in his name and Aadhaar number to TV Irani in Mumbai had drugs in it and told Puneeth that he had to come to Mumbai whenever he was called to give his statements.

Puneeth, who had opened a Bank account in Chennai, had linked his Aadhaar card number and mobile phone number while opening the Bank account. Assuming that his details have been misused, he continued his conversation with the caller.

The caller on the other end of the phone then told Puneeth to give them money so that they will solve the issue in India itself and then return the money. Believing the caller, Puneeth initially transferred Rs. 98,887 and after 10 minutes he again transferred Rs. 3.99 lakh. In all, Puneeth had transferred Rs. 4,97,887 to the Bank account, the caller had told him.

As Puneeth did not receive any information from the caller, he called the mobile number from which the caller had called only to receive the message that the phone was switched off.

Puneeth, who realised that he has been cheated, immediately called 1930 and got his Bank account put on hold. But it is not easy to get back the money he had lost.