Tiruvalla: A young man impersonating as a government official allegedly swindled furniture dealers in Tiruvalla lakhs of rupees. Claiming to be an engineer from the Pathanamthitta District Rural Development Agency, the man reportedly defrauded two major furniture stores, AK Furniture in Perumthuruth and Thoppil Furniture in Thiruvalla town, causing a combined loss of nearly ₹3 lakh.

According to the complaint given by shop owners to police, the accused visited AK Furniture Mart on May 14 around noon. Posing as a government engineer, he wore an identity card. He purchased furniture worth approximately ₹1.10 lakh and handed over a cheque and even produced agreement papers bearing the official seal of the Village Development Centre. Further, he claimed he wanted to collect some more items from another store and requested ₹50,000 in cash from the store owner, which was also given to him.

Later, he went to Thoppil Furniture Mart, where he repeated the same trick, buying furniture worth ₹1 lakh and providing a cheque along with a similar agreement document. The goods were loaded into a pickup van and transported to AK Furniture, as he instructed the store to deliver everything to a location in Karukachal the following day.

AK Furniture complied and delivered the entire consignment to Karukachal using their own vehicle. The fraud only came to light when the stores tried to cash the cheques, only to be informed by bank officials that the account was invalid.

In a further twist, police have learnt that the same individual also purchased mobile phones worth ₹90,000 from a mobile shop in Karukachal and disappeared.

Investigators suspect that this is not an isolated incident. Preliminary reports indicate that the same man, pretending to be a civil supplies officer, swindled groceries, including 50 sacks of sugar worth around ₹3 lakh, from a wholesale store in Changanassery.

Police have reviewed CCTV footage and believe the suspect is Manu, a native of Kottayam, who was previously involved in a similar case in Idukki. In that incident, he posed as a Crime Branch officer and duped a lady doctor who was running a private clinic.

A special investigation team has been formed to track down the accused, confirmed DySP S. Nandakumar of Thiruvalla.