5 held for duping people on pretext of getting train, bus tickets confirmed

The man told the police that on October 5, he, along with his 15-year-old son, had come to Singhu Border from Rai in Sonepat to board a bus to his native place in Uttar Pradesh's Barabanki.

The Delhi Police has arrested five members of a gang which used to allegedly dupe people on the pretext of getting their bus or train tickets confirmed, officials said on Monday. The accused have been identified as Sanjay Yadav (40), a resident of Sultanpuri, Lal Babu Sahani (27), a resident of Samaypur Badali, Santosh Kumar (27), a resident of Badali and Rakesh Mandal (26) and Rajeev Mandal (22), residents of Shakurpur, they said. Police said a man named Sanjay Kumar lodged a complaint on October 6 at the Mahendra Park police station in which he alleged that he was duped by some people on the pretext of getting confirmed bus tickets. The man told the police that on October 5, he, along with his 15-year-old son, had come to Singhu Border from Rai in Sonepat to board a bus to his native place in Uttar Pradesh's Barabanki. He and his son first boarded an e-rickshaw from Singhu Border to ISBT at Kashmere Gate. Three men also boarded the e-rickshaw along with them. They pretended that they were also going to Lucknow and tried to befriended him. The accused asked Kumar if he had a train or bus ticket to travel to Barabanki and when they got to know that Kumar did not have it, the accused asked him to come along with them to a ticket booking office at Jahangirpuri, a senior police officer said. The complainant and his son de-boarded the e-rickshaw in Jahangirpuri. Another man, pretending to be an agent, approached Kumar and asked him to provide his ATM card and pin number so that he could buy the bus tickets. Kumar gave his ATM card and pin number to his son and sent him with them to buy tickets, the officer said. One of the accused, who stayed back with Kumar also left after 20 minutes, after telling him that he was going to check whether tickets have been booked or not, police said. Thereafter, Kumar got nine messages on his mobile regarding withdrawal of Rs 68,500 from his account, police said

"During investigation, police scanned the CCTV footage and on Saturday, all five accused were apprehended from near Haiderpur metro station," Deputy Commissioner of Police (northwest) Vijayanta Arya said. During interrogation, the accused told the police that they used to dupe people after befriending them by posing as passengers or ticket agents. The accused said during festive seasons, the number of people commuting from Haryana, Punjab and Delhi to Bihar and UP increases and the victims easily get trapped as they are in need of confirmed tickets, the DCP said. One laptop, Rs 13,500 cash, 42 mobile phones and other things were recovered from their possession, police said, adding that the accused also confessed to their involvement in a number of other cases.