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On the evening of January 14, as Tamil Nadu prepared to celebrate Pongal, Brahma Puthran (53), a lawyer, had just landed in his hometown Chennai. Around 9 pm, he boarded an Uber from Chennai International Airport for the drive to his home, 10 km away.
The ride, which began uneventfully, slowly unfolded into a carefully staged scam.
The driver, who was around 40 years old, Puthran told TNM, was courteous, helped load his luggage into the boot, and played romantic Tamil movie songs over the car’s speaker.
But five minutes into the journey, the mood shifted.
Without warning, the driver played a WhatsApp voice note. The caller sounded panicked, saying he had been trying to reach the driver repeatedly. The driver’s father, the man claimed, had died, and money was urgently needed at the hospital to release the body.
The driver pulled over, stepped out of the car, wailed, pulled at his hair, and appeared inconsolable before returning to the driver’s seat. He then made a series of 12 to 15 phone calls, which he played on speakerphone. On each call, he pleaded with someone for a short-term loan of around Rs 25,000 to cover hospital expenses.
“When I offered to take another cab so he could go home, he insisted on dropping me first,” said Puthran. He claimed that he anyway had to head in the same direction before travelling to his hometown in Dindigul.
“As the journey went on, the story changed,” Puthran said.