Panic in Mangaluru as many parents get blackmail calls about students being ‘kidnapped or held for rape’

Mangaluru police suspect that someone who accessed the students details from their pre-university colleges was behind the calls.

The police suspect that someone who accessed details of the students and their parents from their colleges was behind the calls. (Representational/ File)

Many parents in Karnataka’s Mangaluru coastal city have complained of threats and blackmail calls demanding huge ransoms in return for releasing their wards—first-year pre-university college students—who the callers claimed to have been kidnapped or arrested in gang-rape cases.

The police, which have booked a case, said on Wednesday that the parents started receiving the threats on Tuesday afternoon. “Parents started receiving calls claiming that their children had been either held in a gang-rape case or kidnapped. The callers, who spoke in Hindi, demanded Rs 5 lakh to release the students or to clear their names in the cases,” a police officer said.

The officer said the calls were made from the numbers +923354533015 and +48699532787. “Many of the parents panicked because the Truecaller app showed the numbers as belonging to the Central Bureau of Investigation and even showed images of uniformed police officers,” the officer said.

When the parents contacted colleges, they were relieved to learn that their children were attending classes.

The police suspect that someone who accessed details of the students and their parents from their colleges was behind the calls.

Commissioner of Police Anupam Agarwal said the cyber police were investigating the origin of the calls and that parents need not panic. They should avoid answering unknown international calls, as such fraudulent calls are often made from abroad, and report any suspicious calls to the nearest police station or directly to 1930, he added.

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