23-year-old man held for duping people of luxury villa stay online

Jadhvani is a history sheeter and has been arrested thrice in cyber fraud cases. “The last of these arrests was made in February 2023. Each time, he gets out of the police custody on bail and continues to con people,” said an officer from Bandra-Kurla complex police.

Mumbai: A 23-year-old postgraduate has been arrested on Monday for duping people online by providing them with luxury villa stays across the state.

The accused, Akash Roopkumar Jadhvani, was nabbed after a case was registered against him on August 24 by an employee of a pharmaceutical company. (HT Photo)

The accused, Akash Roopkumar Jadhvani, was nabbed after a case was registered against him on August 24 by an employee of a pharmaceutical company. She was duped of ₹90,000 when she booked a villa in Alibaug through a website called www.vistarastays.com. She was directed to the website by their Instagram page.

Jadhvani is a history sheeter and has been arrested thrice in cyber fraud cases. “The last of these arrests was made in February 2023. Each time, he gets out of the police custody on bail and continues to con people,” said an officer from Bandra-Kurla complex police.

“The page and website also mentioned a phone number, so we started tracing the location of this number, and located it in a hotel in the eastern suburbs, and caught the accused on Monday night,” said a police officer.

Jadhvani and his elder brother Avinash, 27, have been involved in cyber fraud cases for the past couple of years.

Conning people through Instagram pages is the standard modus operandi of the Jadhvani brothers, said the police. They keep changing the names of their ‘business’, places where the villas are on offer, and their phone numbers often.