Delhi police nab a con artist who used prominent hotels as base to swindle several money exchangers

The five-star cheat

Delhi police nab a con artist who used prominent hotels as base to swindle several money exchangers

If you want the definition of easy money, ask Manikandan Pillai. The 33-year-old Kochi-resident was arrested by the Special Operations Squad of the Delhi police, for allegedly cheating 8 money exchangers off large sums of money.

"Pillai was active in the New Delhi area. He used to book a room in a 5-star hotel and would then call a money exchanger. He would then meet the person at the hotel lobby and showed him his visa and passport. Then he asked for some foreign currency and on receiving it he would ask the money exchanger to collect the cash from his room. However, since he had no intentions of paying up, Pillai would escape through the backdoor.u00a0

He would check out from the hotel before the arrival of the money exchanger. We have arrested him and in the process have solved 8 cases," a police officer said.

With this modus operandi, Pillai had allegedly cheated around 75 lakh rupees off 8 money exchangers. "He always carried his visa and passport to win the confidence of the money exchanger and would then demand for foreign currencies. He was especially interested in currencies like the Dinar, Euro and US Dollars. In every attempt he hustled around 10 to 15 lakh rupees from his victim. He got his cab ready outside the hotel for an easy escape," the police officer added.

Pillai is well educated and speaks English fluently. This helped him in winning the confidence of his victims. Police are questioning Pillai to get information on other scams he might have pulled.