Conman gives fake Rs7 lakh bank draft to exec, flees with car

An executive with PepsiCo in Gurgaon was duped of his Honda City and R20,000 by a conman with whom he had struck an online car sale deal.

An executive with PepsiCo in Gurgaon was duped of his Honda City and R20,000 by a conman with whom he had struck an online car sale deal.

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Accused Aakash Bajaj, claiming to be an employee of HCL in Noida, gave victim Karan Abhishek Singh a fake bank draft of Rs7 lakh and fled with the car. Singh had posted an advertisement on online car portal www.carwale.com in January to sell his 2009 model Honda City and was contacted by the scamster.

“Bajaj came to take a test drive last Friday and we finalised deal for R6.8 lakh. In the evening, he called saying that he was getting a draft of Rs7 lakh from HCL and wanted Rs20,000 cash in return to repair the interiors of the car,” said Singh, a resident of Vatika City in Sector 49, Gurgaon.

He added that Bajaj looked well-educated and dropped names of senior employees at HCL. As Singh’s brother had also worked in the Noida firm, he felt assured that Bajaj was a genuine buyer.

“On Saturday, Bajaj came with the bank draft and took the car. I had thankfully kept the original registration certificate and duplicate keys of the car till the bank DD was not cleared into my account. I had taken a copy of Bajaj’s passport which turned out to be fake. I am shocked that these days, professionals are involved in such fraud cases,” added the victim.

With banks being closed on Sunday, the PepsiCo executive went to deposit the draft on Monday. And then came the shocker.

The branch manager told him that the fraudster had either forged a coloured copy or scanned an original draft and printed it with the changed amount. Singh then filed a police complaint.

Call details of the accused led the police to one Saurabh in Gurgaon. It was found that after duping Singh, he was Bajaj’s next target but Saurabh’s presence of him saved him and he did not fall prey to Bajaj’s trap.

Saurabh claimed that he too had fixed a deal to sell his Toyota Corolla car to Bajaj for Rs9.8 lakh.

Using the same modus operandi, Bajaj had told him that he would give a bank draft of Rs10 lakh and asked for Rs20,000 cash in return.

“We are trying to trace the online conversations the victim and accused had to track the IP address of the computer and location of the conman. He will be nabbed soon,” said assistant sub-inspector Ashwini Kumar.