A Bengaluru man was arrested on Tuesday after he allegedly lured a 31-year-old woman with a job offer at Facebook and then tried to sexually assault her. According to the Yeshwantpur police, the woman had uploaded her resume on a job portal a few months ago.
“Sometime in February, she received a call from a caller claiming to be a woman named Jayanti Suresh, who claimed to be working for Talent Source India Ltd. He told her that she had been selected for the post of a human resource executive in Facebook’s Bengaluru office. He had also told her that she must be prepared for an interview in the future,” a police officer from Yeshwantpur Police Station told The News Minute.
The officer further stated that Jayanti Suresh had informed the woman to wear sexy clothes for the interview if she had to impress her interviewers.
On February 10, the woman received a call letter with a Facebook letterhead, stating that she had been selected for the job. She had also received an email stating the same along with the salary package.
She then received a call from a man named Dinesh Gowda, who said that the interview had been set up at a resort in Ramanagara. He posed as the HR head of Facebook. The social media giant does not have an office in Bengaluru.
“She went to meet Dinesh Gowda at the resort. He took her to a room with the pretext of setting it up for another executive and tried to misbehave with her. The woman slapped him and ran out. But she wanted to get him arrested so she called him back and told him that she wanted to take the job,” the officer said.
After that, she informed the Ramanagar police about Dinesh Gowda’s attempt to sexually assault her. The police and some of the locals tracked his movements and on Tuesday, they arrested Dinesh Gowda when he was trying to do the same with another woman, the police added.
“His name is Dineshraj Gowda. After the 31-year-old woman came forward and gave a complaint that he tried to sexually assault her, another woman has come forward too. We suspect that he may have sexually assaulted other women too,” the police official added.
The police said that Dinesh morphed his voice and spoke to the woman initially as Jayanti Suresh and later Dinesh Gowda.
Gowda has been booked for forgery and cheating in addition to sexual assault by the Yeshwanthpur Police. He has been remanded to judicial custody.
“Dinesh used to go through job portals and make a list of women he wanted to con. He used to get their email IDs and pose as a job consultant initially telling them that they have been selected for a post in Facebook. He lures the women to the same resort in Ramanagara and attempts to sexually assault him. We don’t know how many more victims are there but the investigation is still on,” the police officer said.