BENGALURU:A 27-year old MBA graduate, who used to rent expensive photography equipment from online portals and sell them on online marketplace OLX, was picked up by the Sampigehalli police last week. The con man would pose as a professional photographer and managed to sell many cameras and lenses. Police have recovered equipment worth `12.03 lakh.
The arrested is Karthik Addagarla, a native of Vishakhapatnam. Police found that he had committed similar crimes in Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, and Delhi. A senior police officer said, "On March 21, a complainant Lohit Sontaki approached Sampigehalli police and alleged that Addagarla had contacted him through an online rental portal rentshare.com to take his camera worth `2.76 lakh and a telephoto lens worth `1.38 lakh on rent. After a month, Sontani contacted Addagarla for his gadgets but the latter started avoiding him. Upset over Addagarla's behaviour, Sontaki warned him repeatedly to return the camera and lens. He then decided to file a case."
During interrogation, police found that Addagarla rented gadgets from various people and sold them on OLX portal at cheaper rates. Similar cases were registered in Mumbai West police station in Maharashtra and Howrah police station in West Bengal. "He confessed to the crime and revealed the details of all his customers whom he had sold the gadgets to and those were recovered based on his information," the officer said. Police said that he would this to lead a lavish life.
Addagarla, after completing his MBA graduation from Indian Institute of Management in Kolkata, was unemployed since 2013. He was addicted to gambling and had stolen money from his classmates. He was also penalised for this by the college. His father is an Indian Naval officer while his mother is an employee in a nationalised bank. When his parents came to know about his crimes, they asked him to move out of their home. This is why he keeps moving cities.