Five Kumawat gang members arrested for duping city bizman of ₹20L

According to the police, the five men used to search on businessmen who knew each other every well and study their work and personal life history through their social media and contacts. They would then use the display picture of one of the businessmen to ask for money from the other via WhatsApp

Mumbai Dindoshi police have arrested five members of the Kumawat gang from Rajasthan for allegedly targeting businessmen across the country and cheating them of lakhs of rupees. The mastermind of the gang, however, is still at large.

Five Kumawat gang members arrested for duping city bizman of ₹20L

According to the police, the five men used to search on businessmen who knew each other every well and study their work and personal life history through their social media and contacts. They would then use the display picture of one of the businessmen to ask for money from the other via WhatsApp.

The incident being probed by the Dindoshi police occurred on November 16, when Ujwal Chandak, a garment trader from Indore approached the police after he was duped of ₹20 lakh.

Chandak, in his complaint, said the gang had contacted him using name of a trader who was well known to him. The WhatsApp of the contact too had the display picture of the trader and his family and thus, Chandak felt it was the trader who had contacted him.

Pretending to be the son of the trader who was in Mumbai in need ₹20 lakh urgently, a gang member contacted Chandak requesting if he could arrange the money and send it to him. Chandak assured him that he would make the arrangement and send the money through his Angadiya. The accused told him that his father was out of Mumbai and as soon as he gets back, he would return him the money in Indore.

The police said that when Chandak sent the money and did not receive the cash even after two days, he contacted the trader on his number only to find out that he had been duped.

“We followed the money trail and traced the man who had collected the money from the Chandak’s Angadiya in Mumbai,” said Dr Chandrakant Gharge, police inspector from Dindoshi police station. Through the arrested accused, the police reached out to four more members of the gang.

The five arrested have been identified as Vikram Kumawat (23), Mukesh Kumawat (28), Hasmukh Surana (52), Mohanlal Kumawat (32) and Vikram Surana (47).

The police are now trying to find out the location of the mastermind of the gang and how many businessmen have been cheated throughout the country.