Conman dupes 5-star hotel executive of ₹22 lakh, arrested

Mumbai: A 48-year-old man was arrested for allegedly duping a sales manager of a five-star hotel, located near Mumbai airport of around ₹22 lakh

Mumbai: A 48-year-old man was arrested for allegedly duping a sales manager of a five-star hotel, located near Mumbai airport of around ₹22 lakh.

Conman dupes 5-star hotel executive of ₹22 lakh, arrested

According to police officials, the accused Pugal Vasan approached the complainant, Manisha Jain (42), sales manager at Orchid Hotel, on July 16, and told her that he works for a garment company, which wants to launch a t-shirt brand and other products, and on his employers’ instructions, he was organising a product launch event in Mumbai and wants to book a hall in the hotel for the same.

Vasan again visited the hotel the next day and told Jain that his boss wanted all the guests to be gifted a gold coin as a return gift and asked Jain if she could help him arrange 42 gold coins.

“In order to make some profit, the complainant offered to give Vasan gold coins that she had bought from her personal savings, to which Vasan agreed,” said a crime branch officer.

The accused, on July 18, asked Jain to hand over the coins and collect the payment. She accordingly sent her brother to go and meet Vasan.

“Vasan collected the bag containing 42 gold coins (420 grams in all) from Jain’s brother at an Andheri hotel and under the pretext of stepping out to get the cash for making the payment escaped from the hotel,” said another police officer.

The victim’s brother waited there for a while but as Vasan did not return, he tried calling his number and found it switched off. The man then informed his sister about it.

Jain then approached the Vile Parle police and filed a complaint. Unit 8 of the crime branch had launched a parallel probe in the case and after 10-days of manhunt, nabbed Vasan from a Bangalore hotel room on Thursday and brought him to the city.

During interrogation, he revealed that he had a small clothing business, but the same had to be shut down after incurring huge losses, and therefore started duping people to earn a living, crime branch sources said.

The probe also revealed that before Jain, Vasan had also approached senior executives of two more five-star hotels in the city, but they didn’t accept his requests and his plan didn’t work.

He has been handed over to the Vile Parle police for further investigation and recovery of gold coins.

Vasan has been charged under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code for cheating and criminal breach of trust.