MP woman duped of Rs 42,000 by caller from 'PMO' who offered help to bring her daughter from Ukraine
Vidisha (MP), Feb 25: A man has cheated a woman in Vidisha district of Madhya Pradesh by claiming to be from the PMO and promising to facilitate her medical student daughter's return from Ukraine, police said on Thursday.
Shockingly, when the complainant called the state government's general helpline seeking help for her stranded daughter, she was allegedly asked to contact "Ukraine police station." Vaishali Wilson, the woman, lodged a complaint with the Kotwali Police Station here on Thursday evening.
A man who identified himself as `Prince' called me, claiming he was with the Prime Minister's Office. He said he will help me bring my daughter back home. The True Caller app on my mobile phone too showed his number as belonging to `PMO', Wilson told PTI over phone.
He asked for Rs 42,000 to arrange tickets for her daughter and her friend who are studying medicine in Ukraine, she added.
After Wilson transferred money by mobile banking around 11 am on Wednesday, the man switched off his mobile phone and became unreachable, she said.
Wilson's daughter is a fifth-year student at Kiev Medical University.
She herself works as a lab technician at a blood bank attached to a hospital in the district.
Wilson had called the MP Chief Minister's general helpline earlier, seeking help for her stranded daughter.
But the person manning the helpline asked her to "contact Ukraine police station," she alleged.
Inspector Ashutosh Singh of Vidisha Kotwali police station told PTI that they hope to nab the culprit in the cheating case soon.
Several Indians including students are stuck in Ukraine after Russia launched a military operation against its neighbour earlier in the day.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
