A group of conmen, posing as Income Tax officials, entered a house in Hyderabad and decamped with 3 kg of gold ornaments and Rs 2 lakh cash. The incident occurred on Monday, December 13, in Gachibowli police station limits under Cyberabad Police Commissionerate, police said on Tuesday, December 14. A woman lodged a complaint with the police that five people came to her apartment in Nanakramguda on Monday afternoon, introduced themselves as IT officials and told her that they had come to conduct a search.

Bhagyalakshmi told police that believing them, she handed over the keys of the cupboards and locker. They were present in the house for one-and-a-half hours to give an impression that they were conducting an investigation and took away 3 kg of gold ornaments and Rs 2 lakh cash. The woman later realised that she was cheated and lodged a complaint with the police. A police officer said they registered a case and were scanning CCTV footage from the area to identify the culprits.

Earlier in April, an 22-year-old engineering student was arrested in Mancherial for allegedly cheating 29 people of Rs 80 lakh by posing as an IAS officer and promising them government jobs. According to the police, Barla Laxminarayana, a third-year B Tech student, would introduce himself as a Joint Collector in Mancherial district and cheat people. The accused would promise unemployed people that he could get them a government job if they would spend Rs 3-5 lakh. He collected Rs 80 lakh with which he bought two cars, a motorcycle and a house, police said. 

Another man was arrested by the Hyderabad police in March, for allegedly impersonating Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao's personal assistant and duping several people to the tune of Rs 3 crore. The accused A Sudhakar had duped between 80 to 100 people by assuring them of government housing allotments, police department jobs and gold at cheaper rates, police said.