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Man dupes passengers at airport posing as student in need
The case came to light after a Pune-based sales manager, Akshay Gawade, 31, lodged a complaint. Gawade alleged he was duped of ₹16,000 on March 21
Mumbai: A conman posing as a Nagpur engineering student allegedly duped passengers at Mumbai airport by claiming he had lost his flight ticket and lacked money. Airport police have registered an FIR and suspect that the accused cheated at least three to four people.
The case came to light after a Pune-based sales manager, Akshay Gawade, 31, lodged a complaint. Gawade alleged he was duped of ₹16,000 on March 21 after he landed at Mumbai domestic airport from Kolkata following an official trip.
Gawade told police that around 12.30pm, soon after stepping out of the domestic arrival gate, he was approached by a man who introduced himself as Nilaboyina Srigiridhara Aditya. The accused claimed to be a student of Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology (VNIT), Nagpur, and showed a college ID card.
He told Gawade that he had lost his ticket and urgently needed money to travel to Hyderabad. Believing him, Gawade transferred ₹16,000 via Google Pay after scanning a QR code shown by the accused.
However, when Gawade followed up two days later, the man failed to return the money and eventually blocked his number.
“When Gawade checked the entry of the money sent to the said person through his Google Pay history, he found out that the UPI ID of the person was darivemula3@ptyes,” a police officer said.
Gawade then sought to verify the details with VNIT, Nagpur, and shared a photograph of the ID card which he had clicked on his mobile.
The institute replied that no such student was enrolled and said it had received similar complaints from at least three other victims.Gawade then approached the Airport police, who registered an FIR on Saturday.
Police said they are scanning CCTV footage and have sought bank details linked to the UPI ID used in the transaction to trace the accused.
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