Engineer held for posing as airline officer, duping flyers

A 24-year-old engineer has been arrested by the central Delhi Police for allegedly duping several regular flyers by posing as a senior official of a private airline company. He would offer them air tickets at discounted rates, police said.

A 24-year-old engineer has been arrested by the central Delhi Police for allegedly duping several regular flyers by posing as a senior official of a private airline company. He would offer them air tickets at discounted rates, police said.

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The arrested conman, identified as Prakash Kumar, used to entice his victim through attractive offers and asked him/her to issue a cheque of R1,000 in his favour. After getting the cheque, Prakash used to alter the amount and add a 4 to it, making the amount Rs. 41,000, a senior police officer said.

Devesh Chandra Srivastava, additional CP (central), said Prakash was arrested following investigation into a complaint lodged by Ashish Kalra, the owner of Delhi Institute of Gemology.

“Kalra told us that one Kranta Akash, claiming to be a senior marketing official of a private airline, had come to his office and offered him air tickets at 23 per cent discount. He showed Kalra his ID card and the various air tickets purchased by his customers. He then took a cheque of Rs. 1,000 from Kalra for the ticket,” said Srivastava.

“After two days, the complainant found that Rs. 41,000 had been withdrawn from his account through the cheque he had issued to the accused,” said Srivastava.

Prakash was arrested from near Tis Hazari court where he had come to dupe other gullible customers. On interrogation, Prakash revealed that he was involved in three more cases of cheating in Delhi.