Five members of gang held for duping man of Rs 14 lakh

Five members of a gang have been arrested for allegedly duping a man of Rs 14.40 lakh on the pretext of promising him good returns through the sale of medicines for cancer treatment, police said on Sunday. The accused were arrested on September 26, an official of Kurar police station said.

They are identified as Shehzad alias Zuber Siddique (41), Iftekar Afat Ahmed Sheikh(30), Maskoor Ahmed alias Kaifi Matloob Ahmed Siddique (38), Babban Siptehasan Sheikh (30) and Kaushal Rajbhai Mandliya (23), he said. As per the complaint lodged by Jagjeet Singh Garcha (75), in May this year, he had received a message on an online messenger service, in which a woman, who identified herself as Rose Mary Kristen, told him that she was a doctor by profession.

Soon, she started chatting with him on WhatsApp as well. In June, Garcha received an e-mail from her, in which Kristen claimed that she works for a company that manufactures medicines from cancer cure, police said. "She told Garcha that there was an urgent requirement of three liters of chemical for the medicines, which costs Rs 14.40 lakh. Assuring him good returns, she requested him to transfer the money into her company's bank account," the official said.

"Believing her, Garcha moved the money into the account. When he tried to contact Kristen a few days later, she stopped responding. He realized that he had been duped," he added. Garcha lodged an FIR with the Kurar police, following which a probe was launched.

"With the help of bank transactions and details of the social media accounts, we tracked down all the five accused. They had duped other people from Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Thane, and Gujarat in a similar way," DCP (Zone XII) Dr. D S Swami said.

The entire cash, including 25 ATM cards of different banks, nine mobile phones, a car, a motorcycle, a laptop, a tablet device, and documents were seized from them, he added. They have been booked under IPC sections 420 (cheating), 34 (common intention) and also sections of the IT Act.

The five accused were produced before the court, which remanded them in police custody, police sources said.

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