Mumbai professor duped of Rs 1 lakh by fake cop with claim of her son's detention

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A 58-year-old college professor from Mumbai was duped into paying Rs 1 lakh by a man posing as a police official. The scammer falsely claimed that her son had been detained in a case, prompting the professor to pay the funds to supposedly ensure her son's release.

The incident happened on Tuesday, while the professor was at her institution in Juhu, Mumbai. According to one official, she received a call during her lunch break from someone purporting to be police inspector Vijay Kumar. The caller informed her about her son's alleged detention, causing her to seek to reach him, albeit unsuccessfully, reported PTI.

According to the PTI report, to rescue her son, she deposited Rs 1 lakh to the scammers' accounts. The phoney cop then warned the professor of serious penalties if she revealed the incident to anybody. After discovering the scam and verifying the fake detention claim, the professor approached the Juhu police station to denounce the fraud.

Authorities have filed a complaint against unidentified persons under the Indian Penal Code and the provisions of the Information Technology Act, the report added.

Police arrest two individuals in Thane district; claim to have detected a dozen burglary cases

Meanwhile, the police in Thane district claimed that they have detected nearly 12 burglary cases with the arrest of two men. A report in PTI stated that the cops arrested Avinash Dhanaji Shinde and Samsung Ruben Daniel, both aged 25, while probing a housebreaking incident at Kalyan in February.

According to the report, the cops first arrested Shinde based on CCTV footage, tip-offs and other technical inputs; Daniel was subsequently arrested from Kalyan.

Both Shinde and Daniel were involved in a dozen similar cases committed in Kalyan, Jalgaon and neighbouring Telangana state, an official told PTI.

Reportedly, Senior Inspector Shailesh Salvi of MFC Police Station said that the cops had recovered stolen goods worth nearly Rs 3.62 lakhs from the two. Daniel is named in nine instances in Maharashtra and Telangana, he said.