Mumbai Crime: 24-year-old arrested for duping grocery store owner of over Rs 3 lakh

Nilesh Ghosalkar

The Malad Police have arrested a 24-year-old former Paytm service agent who duped a grocery store owner of over Rs 3 lakh on the pretext of servicing the Paytm machine.

According to the Malad cyber unit, the service agent had copied the OTP that the grocery owner had got on his mobile phone and then withdrew the payment made to the grocery store owner through various fake bank accounts.

The accused has been identified as Nilesh Ghosalkar. He had left Paytm before the lockdown and currently working for the "Freecharge" mobile banking app as a field sales agent.

Mumbai Crime: 24-year-old arrested for duping grocery store owner of over Rs 3 lakh

It has been revealed that the complainant who runs a supermarket in Sunder Nagar area, Malad (West) uses the Paytm machine which was installed by the same accused couple of months back before leaving the job from Paytm.

The shop owner's Paytm machine needed servicing therefore he had called the Paytm customer. But before the Paytm service agent approached the shop Ghosalkar came and asked the owner whether he needed servicing of the machine.

As the accused was known to him, the shopkeeper allowed him to do the service of the machine without knowing the fact that the accused is no longer with Paytm, said an officer.

On the pretext of servicing the Paytm machine in the presence of the shop owner, Ghosalkar took the owner's mobile phone. He copied the OTP making the app accessible for his phone as well and left the shop.

The officer said that Ghosalkar then transferred about Rs 3.67 lakhs using the UPI pin in the various bank accounts and later withdrew the same with the help of his colleagues.

After realising that the money was gone, the victim complained to Malad Police station last week under the guidance of Senior Inspector D Ligade, PSI Dheeraj Wykos and his staff including Tauseef Shaikh and Vijay Mathne traced the accused from Kurar, Malad and arrested him under various section of IPC including IT Act on June 16. The accused was produced before the court and was remanded to police custody and later sent to judicial custody for 14 days.

Also Read: Mumbai: RPF catch five mobile phone thieves in a single day

During the interrogation, it was revealed that Ghosalkar with the help of one of his colleagues had duped many customers and they transferred the amount using UPI pins in the various bank accounts which they opened using fake documents.

So far we have traced 4 to 5 fake bank accounts of the accused, in which they transfer the amount, said PSI Dheeraj Wykos of the cyber unit.