Four men, who were arrested last week for allegedly setting up a travel agencies in different cities to offer people jobs abroad, taking their money and then shutting shop to target people in another city, have been taken into police custody. The Andheri police arrested them for cheating at least 1,000 people and duping them of around Rs5 crore.
The accused — Amit Devdutt Patole alias Navin Joshi, 39, Amardeep Arun Chavan alias Harish Rathod, 28, Sarfaraj Mohammad Fasahat Ali Shaikh alias Asif, 43, and Abdul Salam Guljar Ahmed Ansari alias Mehndi Hasan Jafar Raja alias Raj, 29— had set up an office in Kandivli with two other associates and duped 500 people of around Rs1.5 crore in 2015. They were produced in court on Saturday and remanded in police custody till September 28, said police inspector Sudhir Dalvi of Kandivali police station.
“We have been calling the victims, whose statements we had recorded in 2015 when we had filed an FIR against the four, so they can identify the accused. Two suspects are still wanted in the case,” said the police official.
After the Andheri police got a tip-off that the accused were about to open a new office in Goregaon, they conducted a raid there and arrested them. The same accused were wanted in another 2014 case when they had set up an office in Andheri and cheated 180 people on the pretext of getting them jobs in Singapore and Bangkok. “The accused charged around Rs50,000 to Rs1 lakh per person. They would claim that they had booked a visa online and give the aspirants a slip. When the aspirants would approach them for visa, they would ask them to wait for one week and later closed the office and disappeared,” said the official. The accused set up offices in Vashi where they cheated around 100 people, Delhi to dupe 460 people and Uttar Pradesh, where they disappeared with the money of 150 people.
{{/usCountry}}After the Andheri police got a tip-off that the accused were about to open a new office in Goregaon, they conducted a raid there and arrested them. The same accused were wanted in another 2014 case when they had set up an office in Andheri and cheated 180 people on the pretext of getting them jobs in Singapore and Bangkok. “The accused charged around Rs50,000 to Rs1 lakh per person. They would claim that they had booked a visa online and give the aspirants a slip. When the aspirants would approach them for visa, they would ask them to wait for one week and later closed the office and disappeared,” said the official. The accused set up offices in Vashi where they cheated around 100 people, Delhi to dupe 460 people and Uttar Pradesh, where they disappeared with the money of 150 people.
{{/usCountry}}Stay updated with all the Breaking News and Latest News from Mumbai. Click here for comprehensive coverage of top Cities including Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad, and more across India along with Stay informed on the latest happenings in World News.
Stay updated with all the Breaking News and Latest News from Mumbai. Click here for comprehensive coverage of top Cities including Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad, and more across India along with Stay informed on the latest happenings in World News.