’Customs’ officer arrested in Khar

'Customs' officer arrested in Khar

Formerly employed in a well-known film production house, 25 year-old would pose as a customs officer and call his contacts from ten different mobile phones to offer electronic gadgets at a cheap rate

Khar police arrested 25 year-old Ashish Rameshkumar Dissa on Friday for duping people by making promises to provide electronic gadgets seized by customs at cheap rates. The accused hails from Amravati and had arrived in Mumbai last year to work in the MLA guesthouse in South Mumbai. During the course of his job, he made contacts in the film industry and began working in a well-known production house, in its recording department.

Ashish Rameshkumar Dissa (striped shirt) with policemen at Khar
police station. Pic/ Satyajit Desai

Dissa would regularly interact with people around him, even taking down their phone numbers. Six months ago, he quit both jobs, and visited to Amravati for 15 days. He then returned to Mumbai with a plan to con people.
He would call his contacts and introduce himself as a customs officer, offering to sell them costly electronic gadgets at half their MRP, for which they would have to deposit money into an account. After the funds were transferred, he would make excuses about delivering the products, and switch off his cell phone when the customers tried getting in touch.

Police arrested Dissa at around 10 pm from Khar on Friday night. They found complaints registered against him in Dadar, Juhu and Oshiwara police stations. The bank account he used was owned by Vijay Sharma (Dissa's friend), who had provided a Delhi address. While police are trying to trace Sharma, Dissa, in his statement to the police has claimed that his friend was unaware of his wrongdoings.

The police recovered ten mobile phones and a credit card from him. "He duped around 20 people. Investigations are ongoing. There were directors and many others attached to well-known production houses on his list of contacts. We have arrested him under section 420 of Indian Penal Code," said Police Sub-Inspector Nitin Patil of Khar Police Station.