The police have seized around 50 passports and forged documents from the accused, an official said
Shamsuddin alias Mohammed Khaldu. Pic/ Chembur Police
The Chembur Police on Friday said that they arrested a 54-year-old man for allegedly duping 11 people, all farmers from Tamil Nadu on pretext of getting them jobs in the gulf.
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The police said the accused had got in touch with the victims about a month ago and had allegedly given them a job offer. When the victims came to Mumbai from Tamil Nadu and attempted to check-in to the airport, they were told the visas and air tickets they were carrying were fake. Victims realised that they were cheated and rushed to Chembur Police to file an official complaint in the matter.
According to the police, in December 2022, 11 farmers from Tamil Nadu had got in touch with the man who had identified himself as one Shamshuddin. He had assured them of job opportunities in a Kuwait based company. He asked for Rs 50,000 from each one of them and took their passports. He also asked them to come to Mumbai on December 30 to fly to Kuwait.
“The victims arrived in Mumbai on December 30, the man himself went to receive them and took all of them to a hotel in Chembur. In the hotel, he took money from them and told eight of them that they will have a flight on December 31, while the remaining three will go the next day,” said an official from Chembur Police.
He also gave them their passports with visas and air tickets and told them that he will join them at the airport after a while. All the eight victims went to Mumbai airport, but when they tried to check in, the security officials apprehended them and questioned them over forged visas and air tickets, the official added.
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“We were shocked when we found out that our visas and tickets are fake. We told the officials at the airport that we have been given tickets by an agent who will join us soon and tried to call Shamsuddin but his phone was switched off, security officials allowed us to go and told us that we have been cheated. They also advised us to lodge a complaint with the police against him,” said Palani Mutthu, one of the victims.
All the victims came back to Chembur and with the help of local residents met DCP (zone 6) Hemsingh Rajput who directed Sunil Jadhav, In-charge Senior Inspector of Chembur police station to probe the matter.
A team led by the detection officer Eknath Desai, PSI Swapnil Shinde, ASI Sarjerao Ghule, Krushna Narvekar started the investigation and on technical analysis, managed to nab Shamsuddin from Chembur.
“He had given the victims his fake name, Shamsuddin's actual name is Mohammed Khaldu who is originally from Kerala. He had taken a total amount of Rs 5.5 lakh from them,” said Police Inspector Sunil Jadhav.
The accused has been booked under IPC section 420 (cheating), 465 (forgery) 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating) and 471 (using forged documents as genuine). The police have seized around 50 passports and forged documents from him, an official said.
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