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September 29, 2012

Thieves Conniving On Obituaries

This is a true story and I will keep it short.

Early August we had a major tragedy in our family with my father departing this world. A simple, affectionate man, even on his hospital ICCU bed, with an oxygen mask on, was respectfully folding his hands whenever he saw a visitor in his last days. Even now a tear wells up in my eye when I think of him looking at me from behind the mask, after I softly massaged his hand to give him warmth, with his folded hands.

We came to grips with our sorrow and started planning for the next steps. One of such steps was to publish the sad news in Deccan Chronicle, a local paper in Hyderabad, which got published under 'Obituaries' the very next day, with the mobile numbers of my two sisters.

Unexpectedly, next day we got few strange calls on the mobile phones  - one from an Ashram for destitute women for annadan (donation of food) and many others from various people offering a van or a purohit or flowers etc.

As we were planning for the 11th day ceremonies, a call was received from an 'agent' for placing advertisement in Deccan Chronicle. My sister met him at her office and asked him to go to our house to collect the write up. When he arrived, all of us had gone out on errands, with only my mom being at home. The fellow, who mentioned his name was Srinivas, conned my mom in preparing a bearer cheque for an amount of Rupees Thirteen thousand plus, with a receipt which does not have an address or a phone number.

Within ten minutes of my mom narrating the story over phone, we called up our friends in Corporation Bank and asked them stop payment of the cheque. Even before that this thief had already en-cashed the cheque and scooted.

The advertisement never appeared on the 11th day in Deccan Chronicle.

I am posting this story as a - be aware of - such tactics by the low life cheats in India who live off obituaries.



14 comments:

  1. My heart felt condolences to you and all bereaved on your loss.
    It is indeed sad that scamsters dont spare the griefstruck too.

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  2. Don't let go of him. File an FIR immediately.

    Pathetic indeed

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    1. Thanks. Since we didn't have any address or proper phone number, we tried to call the only mobile number that the guy scribbled behind the 'receipt'. But the mobile has been switched off ever since. We did provide the mobile number to one of our friends in Police department. But it is taking time to trace the records. Will update again in case we are successful in nabbing the culprit.

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  3. Iam very sorry to hear of your loss-may his soul rest in peace.
    About that scoundrel ,it is unimaginable.

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    1. Thanks for the condolences...really appreciate it.

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  4. Came across your blog through Indiblogger
    Sorry for your loss Sir... Strength to your family
    Its really tough to judge who is cheating and who is not in today's world..
    Good that you shared such an incident..

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    1. Thanks for the condolences. We are still trying to locate the cheat and will update my post once we do it.

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  5. My heartfelt condolences on the passing away of your father..you are indeed brave to share this experience to warn other fellow beings while you yourselves are in deep distress...May God provide you and your family the fortitude to bear with this irreparable loss! Om shanti!

    Priya
    http://aalayamkanden.blogspot.in

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    1. Thank you very much for the condolences. We are still trying to trace the guy, since we have a mobile number. Will update all once we crack it. Thanks anyway for dropping by.

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  6. My heartfelt condolences. And my respects to your father, who must have lived fully... I guess from his gesture to the visitors.
    The police should take your complain seriously: scoundrels are inventing new ways to cheat people.
    Blogs are read by a few people. This crime should be reported and published in the newspapers to inform people.

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    1. We did file an unofficial police report...but the progress has been quite slow...

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