2 held for duping man to arrange money for contesting Panchayat elections

Two men were arrested for allegedly duping a person of over Rs 4 lakh to arrange money for contesting Panchayat elections, police said on Wednesday. The accused have been identified as Mehtab (35) and Akib (25), both residents of Asilpur village in Meerut, they said.

They have duped a person using the pretext of selling an SUV car through an online marketplace. Police said that one Sultan, a resident of Hyderabad, lodged a complaint where saying that he saw an advertisement in August on an online car selling marketplace about a Toyota Fortuner at a price of Rs 6 lakh, police said.

He contacted the seller, Mehtab, and the deal was finalised at Rs 4.65 lakh after negotiations, a senior police officer said. Mehtab asked Sultan to come to Ajmeri Gate, Delhi, with money to get the delivery of the car.

On September 3, Sultan, along with his three brothers, came to Ajmeri Gate and handed over Rs 2.15 lakh in cash to Mehtab and transferred Rs. 2.50 lakh in the account of one Athar Ali, the brother of Mehtab. On asking about the delivery of the vehicle, Mehtab told Sultan that NOC of the vehicle would be received the next day and took the complainant and his brothers to a hotel in Pahar Ganj area, police said.

However, in the early morning of September 4, Mehtab and Akib escaped from the hotel with the car while the complainant and his brothers were still sleeping, they said. "During investigation, police got the photos of the accused through CCTV footage installed at Ajmeri Gate and the hotel where they had stayed. Later, the details of the accounts in which money was transferred were also obtained, following which the accused were arrested on Sunday from their village," said Mandeep Singh Randhawa, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central).

The car, which was registered in the name of Mehtab's uncle, was also seized, he said. Interrogation revealed that the accused wanted to contest Panchayat elections for which they need plenty of money but their income from agriculture was not sufficient.

Meanwhile, Mehtab's uncle told them that he wanted to sell his car and also asked them for a suitable buyer. They uploaded the photos of the car on internet and also quoted a very cheap amount for sale of the vehicle, the DCP added.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)