Mumbai Crime: Conman caught within hours of cheating Australian tourist

An Austrian tourist on vacation in Mumbai was recently cheated by a stranger he met in Colaba while he was out buying Indian spices to take back home.

The conman, identified as Rakesh Jha alias Jems, 28, struck up a conversation with the Austrian national, Gabriel Toso, 22, a student at Vienna University after asking him for a cigarette. After speaking to him for a while, Jha asked him if he was interested in doing drugs and thrust a small plastic wrapped packet into his hands. According to Toso's statement to the police, the man then asked for R300 for the drugs.

After Toso paid him the money, Jha told him to immediately throw away the packet as there were cops around and even pointed to a police officer saying Toso was in trouble as the cop had seen him (Toso) buy the drugs. Jha then told him he could sort out the problem if he gave some money to the cop. Jha then took him to an ATM, got him to withdraw R30,000, took the money and disappeared into the crowd.

Toso told the police, "I tried to look for him in the area but could not find him. I then went back to my hotel and told my friend about the incident. We then lodged a complaint with the police." Sources said, following the complaint, the police checked the CCTV footage of the spot and identified Jha. Within a few hours, Jha was spotted by the police in the same locality and he was detained and brought to the police station, Jha was later identified by the complainant, too. A police officer said, "He was arrested on charges of cheating and was produced before the court which sent him to judicial custody."