Con artist arrested for duping doctor of Rs 9 lakh

A 52-year-old man was arrested yesterday by officials of the Airport police station for cheating a doctor of Rs 9 lakh. The police said the accused had promised to help the doctor buy a prime piece of land belonging to a Muslim trust in Mumbai in exchange for the money, but did not deliver on his word.
The police said the arrested man, Mohhamad Salim Asadi, a resident of Dhanori who had failed his MBBS examination, had used the same method to dupe a couple of people in the past as well.

Success: DCP (Zone IV) Sanjay Jadhav and police officials from the Airport police station display the Rs 7 lakh they recovered from Asadi. Pic/Krunal Gosavi

The police managed to recover Rs 7 lakh from the suspect.u00a0The complaint against Asadi was registered by Bashir Sahebkhan Pathan (50), a resident of Airport Road. u00a0"The suspect had contacted Pathan, who has his practice on Airport Road, through a common acquaintance and told the complainant that he would help him buy a prime land worth Rs 4 crore of a Muslim trust in Mumbai and also assured him that he would help him get a loan from a finance company at 9 per cent," Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone IV) Sanjay Jadhav said. "After gaining trust of the complainant, the suspect started showing his real face and took Rs 1 lakh from him to get the job done.u00a0

Asadi allegedly took the complainant to Mumbai and showed the land. Later he demanded Rs 8 lakh from him under the name of processing fees of the loan." The police said that after taking the Rs 9 lakh, the accused then started avoiding the complainant's calls. u00a0When the complainant went to the residence of the accused, he went absconding and that prompted Pathan to register a complaint with the Airport police station. "On March 19, a police team spotted the accused on Dhanori Road and gave chase. The accused, who was in his car with registration number MH-14 C K 2275, managed to give the police the slip and ran away, leaving the car in Vimannagar," Senior Police Inspector Prakash Shaha of the Airport policestation said.u00a0

He said the registration number of the car was later found to be fake and the original registration number of the car was MH-06 A W 8667. He said the car was in the name of one Sanjaykumar Nayar.u00a0In the police investigation, it was revealed that the accused had duped Nayar and fled with his car. "We received specific information on July 5 that Asadi would be coming to Palladium Society in Dhanori and so we laid a trap and arrested him," Shaha said. "We have also recovered Rs 7 lakh from his possession."

The police said that Asadi, who sports a corporate look and goes about in luxurious cars, is a slick talker and manages to impress people with his eloquence. During the interrogation, it was revealed that in 2010 the accused had duped one u00a0Dilip Shelake of Rs 86,000 as well as his car using the same method.u00a0