Cheat who went by the name spiked drinks of victims travelling AC long-distance trains and used money to fly back to base in Mumbai
Cheat who went by the name spiked drinks of victims travelling AC long-distance trains and used money to fly back to base in Mumbai
Bhayander-resident Bharat Jain (27) alias Harshad Mehta's smooth ways could easily give his infamous scamster namesake (see box) a complex.
Jain, who speaks fluent English, Gujarati, Marathi, Hindi and Tamil, had been duping commuters travelling in first and second-class air conditioned coaches of long-distance trains for many years.u00a0
His criminal career was cut short by the Government Railway Police (GRP) in Pune, who arrested him in August at Daund on a Chennai-Mumbai Express train and recovered stolen laptops, mobile handsets and gold ornaments worth Rs 75 lakh from him before handing him over to the GRP Crime Branch in Kalyan on Tuesday.
Jain would befriend his victims and gain their confidence sufficiently, so they would accept drinks from him that were spiked with Ativan 2mg, a sedative.
Investigating Police Inspector Atmacharan Shinde of the Pune GRP said that Jain would gift the stolen mobile handsets to his girlfriends.
"He would gift the phones to call girls he had befriended and sold the gold to jewellers in Zaveri Bazaar.u00a0 Much of the stolen gold as well as 19 such phones were recovered from him.
Jain never returned by train to Mumbai after committing a crime. He took a flight instead," said Shinde.
| Modus Operandi |
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Bharat Jain would board the first/second class AC compartment on a long distance train from Mumbai with two valid tickets.
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He would use the extra ticket to accommodate someone who either did not have a confirmed ticket or needed an extra berth.
The grateful victim would not refuse the spiked cup or tea/coffee that Jain would offer him at the next station.
It was only after the effects of the drug wore off that the victim that he would learn that he had been cheated of his valuables.
Who is Bharat Jain?
Bharat Jain, a college drop out, from Pali district of Rajasthan, was convicted in three cases and sent to Sabarmati Central Jail in Gujarat in 2005, after which he took to looting travellers on long distance trains.
Who was Asli Harshad Mehta?
Harshad Mehta was a stock broker who engineered the rise in the Bombay Stock Exchange in 1992.
Exploiting several loopholes in the banking system, Mehta and his associates siphoned off Rs 4,000 crore from inter-bank transactions, triggering a rise in the BSE Sensex.
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He was charged with 72 criminal offenses and more than 600 civil action suits. He died in 2002. |
