Mumbai Crime: Four held for duping man of ₹2.75 lakh in dollar exchange scam

The Kurla police have arrested four people for duping a Nerul-based man to the tune of Rs. 2.75 lakhs in the name of fake currency exchange.

The matter surfaced on April 3 when the complainant named Pradeep Kumar Kaundal, a 62-year-old man, residing in sector 6, Nerul, approached the police claiming that he was duped by some men who had promised him to provide dollar currency in exchange of Indian Rupee. Pradeep was promised to provide US Dollars and for the same they asked him to provide Rs. 2.75 lakhs.

On April 3, around 12.30 pm, they asked Pradeep to come to SG Barve Marg in Kurla, where they would provide the US Dollars. Upon reaching Pradeep handed them Indian currency, and in exchange they gave him an envelope which they said contained US Dollars. After checking the packet, Pradeep found papers that had "Dollars" written on it - turned out to be bogus.

Police identify accused from CCTV footage

The police started investigating the case and found the facial identity of the four accused from the CCTV camera that was at the crime spot. They also started tracing the number from which they contacted the victim, while collecting the Call Data Record (CDR) of the number which showed his location somewhere in Shilpata Road between Kalyan and Dombivli in Thane district. The police managed to arrest the first accused, named Yusuf Shaikh, 33, from his location. While interrogating, he revealed the details of the other accused who were involved in the crime - who were then arrested by the police.

The other three accused are Mohammad Chand Miyya Shaikh a resident of Delhi, Rafiq Halim and Mohin Shaikh - both residents of Dombivili. As per the police, this is not the first time the four accused had done such a crime. Police found a similar case against them at Mumbra Police Station and it is expected that they may have committed similar crimes in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Thane, Kalyan and Vasai areas - for which the probe is ongoing.

A case under section 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and 34 (common intent) of the Indian Penal Code has been registered against them and they are currently at police custodial remand.