Eight member gang held for offering US dollars cheaper, cheating

Investigation has revealed that this gang committed two similar crimes in APMC police station last month

Navi Mumbai

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The APMC police have arrested a gang of eight men who targeted businessmen and cheated them of lakhs of rupees after promising them USdollars at a cheaper rate.

Residents of Mankhurd and Turbhe store, the accused used to meet their victims either at Turbhe or at APMC area and exchange the money with fake American dollars and flee. Acting on a to tip off received by Senior police inspector Tanveer Shaikh of APMC police station, the police team laid a trap and arrested the accused red handed while they were exchanging the money with fake dollars with businessman.

The accused have been identified as Mohammad Habib Malik Sheikh (32), Mohammad Rahul Luqman Sheikh (33), Ismail Aizul Sheikh (35), Mohammad Shahid Abdul Fariq Sheikh (32), Javed Ashfaq Khan (38), Bablu Manjur Sheikh (38), Mohammad Mufanjul Hasamuddin Sheikh (38) and Shebud Saifuddin Haji Shaikh (31), all originally hailing from Jharkhand.

All the men from the gang are unemployed and used to pretend to have US dollars and offered them at low prices. “They would approach any businessman and tell them that the US dollars were given as a gift by a family to the mother of one of them and hence they were selling them at a lower price. When the businessman would come with the cash, they would give a bundle which looked like bundle of cash with only first note as real dollar and rest would be plain paper. After the exchange, they would immediately flee from the spot,” the police said.

On Tuesday evening, the gang called Javed Abdul Hameed Palsara (34), a hardware shop operator from Jogeshwari near Mafco market in APMC. to buy US dollars after luring him. Police Sub-Inspector Nilesh Kumar Mahadik and his team laid a trap in the Mafco Market area of APMC and arrested all the eight accused. The police have seized 2 US dollars, Rss 3,000 in cash, 15 mobile phones of different companies and paper bundles in the size of notes used for cheating from these accused. Investigation has revealed that this gang committed two similar crimes in APMC police station last month. Apart from that, this gang has also committed crimes in other parts of Navi Mumbai and the police is investigating about the same.