40-year-old arrested for duping 10 scrap dealers in Ghaziabad

The accused would make an offer to dealers to buy scrap at cheap rates so that the closed down mill could pay up its pending amount to sugarcane farmers

Ghaziabad: The Ghaziabad police on Saturday arrested a 40-year-old man who pretended to be the owner of a closed down sugar mill in Basti district and duped at least 10scrap dealers across Uttar Pradesh to the tune of about ₹20 crore on the pretext of selling them the mill’s scrap at cheap rates.

The Ghaziabad police managed to nab the suspect after investigation teams traced his locations through electronic surveillance. (Sakib Ali /HT)

Police identified the suspect as Mohammad Kamruddin, a native of Basti, who operated a share trading office from Hazratganj in Lucknow. Officers said that he is an MBA and allegedly devised a plan to cheat scrap dealers after suffering losses in share trading business during the Covid pandemic.

“We initiated an investigation and arrested the suspect…He told police that he planned to dupe different scrap dealers while posing as owner of a closed down sugar mill, located in his hometown of Basti district. In some cases, he would also pose as a facilitator for selling sugar mill’s scrap on cheap rates and told the scrap dealer that he has an MoU with mill owners,” said Rajesh Kumar deputy commissioner of police (DCP) (city).

Police said that the suspect contacted different scrap dealers in the state for alleged selling of scrap of the sugar mill, and would make them transfer money to different accounts that he operated.

The accused would make an offer to scrap dealers to buy scrap at cheap rates so that the closed down mill could pay up its pending amount to sugarcane farmers. When scrap dealers visited the mill in Basti after making initial payments, they would find themselves to have been cheated, the DCP said.

“This way he cheated different dealers in Ghaziabad, Meerut, Basti, Lucknow, Barabanki, among others. We have come across 10 FIRs against him in UP and these involve funds totaling to about ₹20 crore,” the officer added.

The Ghaziabad police managed to nab the suspect after investigation teams traced his locations through electronic surveillance.

Kamruddin was arrested after a scrap dealer in Ghaziabad registered a first information report on August 14 against him for cheating and causing loss of about ₹1.5 crore.

The FIR was registered at Nandgram police station.