Cop among 6 arrested for duping woman of ₹8 lakh

Six people, including a sub-inspector, have been arrested in Mumbai for allegedly duping a Pune resident of ₹8 lakh in a share trading scam. The main accused is still at large.

Mumbai: Six persons, including a sub-inspector attached to the RCF police station, were arrested on Monday for allegedly duping a 38-year-old Pune resident of ₹8 lakh on the promise of doubling her profits in investments of shares. The main accused, Mohseen, is however still at large.

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The arrested accused are identified as Rajendra Gaikwad, sub-inspector, Abdul Rahim Mohammad Umar Khan, Hariom Prajapati, Saudalat Abdul Rakim Alam, Imran Mohammad Ishaque Ansari, and Abubakar Mohammad Shaikh. Khan and Prajapati are residents of Cheeta Camp, Chembur, whereas Ansari is a resident of Nagpada, and Shaikh is a resident of Dharavi. Alam is a resident of Delhi. All of them have been remanded in police custody.

According to the police, Ansari, Shaikh and Mohseen were in touch with Alam and had told him that a person is coming to Mumbai with illegal money, and they could plan something with the police, and all can benefit from it.

Alam then contacted Prajapati in Mumbai who then contacted Abdul Khan, a police informer, to arrange a trap, an officer from RCF police station said, adding, “Khan then informed Gaikwad and they hatched the plan, said a police officer who is a part of the probe.”

The woman, who is into share trading and lives with her father and elder brother in Pune, met Mohseen, a Mumbai resident, at a seminar in Pune and exchanged mobile numbers. Since Mohseen also claimed to be in share trading, they used to chat on WhatsApp, said the officer.

“Mohseen called the woman and offered to double the amount in 15 days if she could arrange ₹10 lakh for investing in the share market. She believed him, arranged the money and came to Mumbai on Thursday with cash of ₹9.75 lakh,” the officer added.

The woman met Mohseen in Mumbai and stopped the car in the Chembur area when one person came and gave him a parcel. When Mohseen was trying to open the parcel, Gaikwad, who was in uniform, came and started enquiring about the parcel. Gaikwad then took him aside, and when both were talking, a police constable in uniform came on a bike and took Mohseen as a pillion rider to the RCF police station on Gaikwad’s instructions.

The officer said that Gaikwad however, did not tell anything to the woman, who suspected some foul play and followed the autorickshaw in which Gaikwad was travelling and thus reached the RCF police station. He added that after waiting for an hour outside the police station, she gathered courage and went inside, where she saw Gaikwad and went to him to enquire about Mohseen.

“Gaikwad told her that Mohseen was wanted in a case and asked her to leave the police station. Sometime later, she noticed Mohseen leaving the police station in an autorickshaw along with a person. The woman followed the vehicle and after around two kilometres, forced the three-wheeler to stop,” the officer said. “Mohseen came out of the auto, sat in the woman’s car and asked her to drive towards the Eastern Freeway. They came to Mazgaon, where the accused called a person who came and handed over a parcel, claiming it to be her money. The accused then got out of the car and disappeared. The woman opened the parcel and found that only ₹1.75 lakh was returned to her.”

She then approached the police and filed a complaint.