Mumbai Crime: Four men dupe one to the tune of Rs 5 lakh, arrested

The Vanrai police busted a gang who allegedly duped people under the pretext of doubling their money in exchange for Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 currency notes on Wednesday.

The four accused identified as Rakesh Bankar(35), Sanjiv Aprute (53), Rajkumar Mishra (23) and Mayur Naik (31) hail from Goregaon east and the incident came to light after they duped a mobile shop owner to the tune of Rs 5 lakh.

According to the Vanrai cops, Mohammed Nihal Shaikh, a mobile shop owner came in contact with Bankar through a friend. Bankar lured Shaikh into believing that the government was going to stop the Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 notes and that he knew someone who could help him in exchanging the currency with Rs 10, Rs 20, Rs 50 and Rs 100 notes and that he could get double amount of money in return.

With the prospect of getting the double amount of his investment, Shaikh gave Bankar a go -ahead and gathered a total amount of Rs 5 lakh by taking all of his savings, by borrowing money from his friends and by withdrawing some amount using his credit card.

As per the plan, Shaikh went to exchange in Goregaon east near Kama estate area where he met Bankar, the accused who is currently absconding and rest of the gang members. As soon as Shaikh handed over the cash, someone raised an alarm that cops had arrived at the scene. Soon they all ran in a different direction, and taking advantage of this the accused ran away with the bag of money.

However, Shaikh realising that he was duped, ensured that he held on to Bankar and took him straight to Vanrai police station and explained cops the whole scenario.

"We interrogated Bankar who disclosed the entire plot. Acting on the information, we arrested Mishra and Naik from Nalasopara while Sanjiv was arrested in Kandivli. A few of them, including the one who fled with the cash, are absconding and the probe is on to arrest them," senior inspector GD Bhavsar from Vanrai police station said.

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