3 arrested for cheating people of Rs4.95 cr

The Chembur police have arrested three men for allegedly cheating people by promising to sell Ayurveda powder and herbs to cure Covid-19 and boost immunity

The Chembur police have arrested three men for allegedly cheating people by promising to sell Ayurveda powder and herbs to cure Covid-19 and boost immunity.

HT Image

The police have estimated that the trio has cheated people to the tune of ₹4.95 crores since the start of the pandemic in 2020. The three told the police that they had partnered with Nigerians Jerry Sunday and Edward to commit this fraud.

According to the police, the three accused identified as Mohammed Hussain Shaikh, 51, Trijugilal Kurmi, 43 and Salim Shaikh, 39, took flats, office spaces and galas on rent for two to three months and with the help of the rent documents, then opened bank accounts and other legal documents like GST etc to run the ‘fake’ business.

The police officers said that complainant Nafis Khan had approached them alleging that the manager of their firm Archana Kumar called and informed him that the Ayurveda powder he was looking for was available with Ajaykumar Herbal Enterprises. She then led Khan to Shaikh who asked Khan to transfer ₹1.39 lakhs to his account. Khan alleged that he was cheated as he did not get any powder by courier.

The police arrested the three accused from various locations by tracking their mobile phones and through bank transactions, they had made.

“The three had opened 16 accounts in various banks with the help of documents of their rented properties and had cheated people to the tune of ₹4.95 crores. We have frozen the bank accounts containing ₹8.25 lakhs,” said a police officer from Chembur police station.

On further investigation, the police learnt that the trio had cheated people in Kolhapur, Solapur, Karnataka, West Bengal, Haryana and Gujarat with a similar modus operandi.