3 fake cops held for extorting ₹99 lakh from Malad resident

The victim was found loitering at Dahanu railway station, mustering the courage to take his life on Friday

MUMBAI: Three fraudsters posing as senor police officers have been arrested for extorting money from a Malad resident, in a con game that pushed the victim to the brink of suicide. The victim was found loitering at Dahanu railway station, mustering the courage to take his life on Friday.

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Dindoshi police arrested the conmen on Tuesday for extorting ₹99 lakh from the 39-year-old Malad resident, who owns an LPG agency. The victim was traced after his wife lodged a complaint with the police on December 15.

Police said it all began in September last year, when the victim lent around ₹10,500 to an acquaintance, Praveen Khedekar, who had organised a Ganpati pandal in the neighbourhood. Soon, Khedekar asked him to lend him ₹50,000 more. Khedekar instructed the victim to make a mobile phone transfer to the phone number of an acquaintance.

The victim then received a call from one of the fraudsters, who claimed he was the joint commissioner of police. The fake cop told him he was suspected of murder and the ₹10,500 he had lent Khedekar was payment for the alleged contract killing.

A police officer said, “A few days later, the frightened victim received a call from another unknown number, where the caller claimed that Khedekar had been killed to “save’ him”. The caller then demanded ₹2 lakh as payment for Khedekar’s alleged murder.”

The fraudsters called the victim many times, each time asking him for money to avoid being arrested. What began with a demand for ₹50,000, went up to ₹7 lakh, as another conman posing as a police officer named “Avinash Shinde”, demanded more money to “settle” the case.

The victim told the police that whenever he made cash payments, a senior citizen would meet him at a public garden to collect the money. One of the fraudsters, now pretending to be the Mumbai police commissioner, even demanded ₹20 lakh to prevent “immediate arrest”.

“As the demands kept escalating, the gas agency owner paid nearly ₹80 lakh in cash and ₹19 lakh via online payments,” said a police officer. He had taken loans from various finance companies to make these payments. Believing his arrest was imminent, despite the payments, the victim left home on December 15. No one knew where he went.

Acting on his wife’s complaint, police found him as he was contemplating suicide at the Dahanu railway station. “He told us he wanted to die by suicide as he was afraid of being arrested,” said a police officer.

An offence was registered against unknown persons under section 308 (extortion) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.

On checking the victim’s call detail records (CDR), police traced the initial transfer of ₹50,000 to a man called Praveen Kate. Police also traced the senior citizen who was sent to collect the cash from the victim.

Many of the mobile money transfers had been made from the phone of the senior citizen. “The elderly citizen was an acquaintance of the conmen but claimed he was unaware of the fraud. He admitted he had lent his phone to the three men,” said an officer with the Dindoshi police. Armed with a description of the fraudsters, police nabbed Khedekar and arrested him along with Kate and another accomplice.