35-year-old held for duping Delhi resident on pretext of cheaper e-bikes

The complainant paid ₹2 lakh as a booking amount for eight bikes, at ₹25,000 per bike, and paid GST as well, taking the total to ₹2.63 lakh

NEW DELHI

Police are scanning bank accounts of the accused to ascertain the scale of the scam. (Representative photo)

A 35-year-old man, a member of a gang that cheats people by posing as managers of a company selling electric scooters, was arrested by the police for allegedly cheating a man of over ₹2.5 lakh on the guise of providing him vehicles at lower than market prices, police said.

Deputy commissioner of police (Dwarka) Ankit Singh identified the accused as Summy Kumar Agnihotri, of Jharkhand. He was arrested on July 3, police said. He used to lure customers on online platforms, police said.

An investigator said they received a complaint from the manager of a private hospital in Sector 10, Dwarka, in July 2022 said he carried out a web search, following which he received a call from a man who introduced himself as manager of a reputed e-bike company.

“He sent fake quotations and offered an e-bike at ₹1,18,999 for a bike which cost around ₹1.5 lakh in the market. He spoke very professionally and didn’t sound like he wasn’t an employee of the company,” the investigator, who did not want to be named, said.

The complainant paid ₹2 lakh as a booking amount for eight bikes, at ₹25,000 per bike, and paid GST as well, taking the total to ₹2.63 lakh, police said. “After making the payment, when the complainant called the so-called manager, his phone was switched off. That’s when he realised that he had been cheated,” the investigator said.

Details of the beneficiary’s account were obtained and its holder was identified as Agnihotri, who lives in Dhanbad. The accused was asked to join the investigation and a non-bailable warrant was issued against him, following which a team visited Dhanbad on July 3. “With the help of technical surveillance, his location was traced. After monitoring him for a while, a raid was conducted and the accused was arrested,” the investigator said.

Police said Agnihotri was part of the gang and his account was used by the kingpin to receive money. He was allegedly paid 20-30% of the amount duped in each transaction, police said.

Police are scanning Agnihotri’s bank accounts to ascertain the scale of the scam. “There are many such scamsters who are cheating people in the country. This is just one type. They may have been using other modus operandi to cheat people. In this scam as well, we suspect they have cheated many in the Capital,” the investigator said.