Donate for the villagers of Rainipur in Kerala: A scam in the heart of Silchar? 

If a woman with a young schoolgoer kid reach out to you with a helpless face and say they have lost all they had in the Kerala floods and seek for donations, don’t pay them any money as it is possible they are fooling you.

Since last few days Barak Bulletin correspondents have been tracking a group of women accompanied by young kids in school dress. They claim they are from “Rainipur” in Kerala and have lost everything they had in the devastating floods; cyclone that jolted the State “2 – 3 months back”. They even have a piece of paper which has a few names and amount written against each name suggesting these people have paid, and you too should pay. 

As we started searching more about the place we failed to locate any “Rainipur” or “Ranipur” village in Kerala. There are some in Orissa, Haridwar, but none in Kerala. Each time our reporter tried to ask the group of women questions like who they were and where are they are from, they evaded citing different excuses.

These women with kids were spotted in College Road, Premtala, Ambikapatty, Jail Road and in other parts of the city.

Today, our correspondent along with a few students of the Department of Political Science, GC College confronted one of the women. They asked the lady where is she from and she replied that she is from Ranipur Village in Kerala, showed a piece of paper and narrated the same story that she lost her all in the cyclone and how the flood took place three months back. She even said that the whole group is residing in Badarpur and have traveled all the way from Kerala to  Silchar for help.

What takes us a step closer to say that this is a scam and the group of women are a bunch of fraudsters is the fact that the exact same phenomenon was reported by a website (allaboutbelgaum) in Belgaum, a city in Karnataka. In Surat too, a man was scammed in the exactly similar manner – the same Ranipur Village, floods, cyclone and all.

However close we are to call them fraudsters and the entire Ranipur Village Calamity donation drive a scam, we won’t make that judgement and that is not our job. We have shed light on all the facts, have put out videos and photos and the facts indicate there is something fishy.

When they reach out to you tomorrow and ask for money or clothes, you have two options – donate as per your will or call the cops. Facts suggest, you should do the later.

Special mention: The students of the Department of Political Science, GC College Silchar played a big part in this story.