Three booked in Thane for cheating Kolkata-based merchant of Rs 60 lakh in sugar trade

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Police has registered a case after a Kolkata-based merchant claimed he was cheated of Rs 60 lakh by three persons, including two from Navi Mumbai, an official said.

As per the complainant, one of the accused, who hails from Gurugram in Haryana, approached him with help to procure 135 tonnes of sugar for export from the trading firm of another accused, who hails from Navi Mumbai, newswire PTI reported.

"The three collected Rs 60 lakh from the Kolkata-based merchant but never delivered the sugar consignment. They also provided him fake documents. The accused have been charged with cheating, criminal breach of trust, forgery and other offences," the NRI Sagari police station official said.

Meanwhile, a man ended his life allegedly due to harassment over a parking allotment dispute in Titwala in Thane district after which police booked four persons for abetment of suicide, a police official said.

The official said that Bhushan Lotan More (33) committed suicide Thursday afternoon by jumping in front of a mail train between Khadavali and Titwala stations.

"His brother told us More was embroiled in a parking allotment dispute with four persons from his housing society and that he ended his life due to harassment from them," Senior Inspector Pandhari Kandhe of Kalyan railway police station said.

Based on the victim's brother's complaint, the four have been booked for abetment of suicide and other offences, he said. Efforts are on to nab them, Kandhe added.

In a separate incident, a case has been registered against Marathi actor Ketaki Chitale for allegedly hurting sentiments with claims about misuse of the SC-ST (Prevention of Atrocities Act), police said on Friday.

Speaking at the 'Brahmin Ekya Parishad' conference at Parli in Maharashtra's Beed district on February 25, Chitale allegedly called for a scrutiny of cases registered under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act in the last five years to check how many of them were genuine.

Information should be obtained under the Right to Information Act as filing false cases under the Atrocities Act has become a racket, she allegedly said.

Premnath Jagatkar, a local resident, lodged a complaint at Parli city police station after listening to the speech online, a police official said.

A First Information Report was registered against Chitale and the organiser of the conference Bajirao Dharmadhikari on Thursday under Indian Penal Code sections 295-A (hurting religious sentiments) and 505 (2) (statements creating enmity between classes), the official added.

No arrest has been made in the case.

Chitale had faced arrest in 2022 for allegedly sharing a derogatory post about NCP chief Sharad Pawar on social media. She later got bail. (With inputs from PTI)