Vadodara: Vice president of Anand Congress city unit Miraj Patel and 12 others were arrested by city’s prevention of crime branch (PCB) for cheating a Madhya Pradesh-based businessman of several lakhs by first luring him into taking loan at cheap interest rate and then planning to extort money by impersonating as policemen.
Miraj’s father Narendra Patel is the mastermind and leader of the gang that included seven fake cops.
The con job came to light when the businessman, Prem Chavla, approached the city police and filed a complaint few days ago. Chavla said that he was approached by this gang and offered loan worth crores of rupees that coud be arranged from private financial institutions at low interest rate. “They asked for a commission of Rs 15 lakh to get the loan cleared ,” said Manoj Sashidhar, city police commissioner.
Chavla paid Rs 15 lakh but when the gang demanded another Rs five lakh, he got suspicious and approached the police. PCB sleuths then set a trap and asked Chavla to meet a gang member Kamal Patel who was to receive the money at Alkapuri, Patel, a resident of Anand, was nabbed by the team led by police sub-inspector H M Vyas, who then questioned him about other members. “Kamal told us about the other four members who were waiting at a hotel on Jambusar Road. Our team nabbed them too,” Sashidhar added. Apart from Miraj, Dhruv Patel, Krunal Solanki and Digesh Mistry were nabbed from the hotel.
“Their modus operandi was to first lure businessmen by promising them loans and asking for commission. They used to show fake notes to the victims to convince him that they are moneyed people. Once the victim paid the commission amount, the gang used to bring in fake cops who used to threaten the victim for carrying so much cash,” Sashidhar said. The scared victim used to give up the money and leave the spot.
Their vehicles including the one carrying fake currency notes too was seized from the spot. One of the four-wheelers displayed a board ‘MLA Gujarat’. When they were questioned, the accused revealed about other members of their gang who used to impersonate as cops.
“The gang had planned to do the same with Chavla but he was alert and approached the police,” Vyas said.
The PCB team then headed for the Padra-Jambusar road where the fake cops were waiting to intercept Chavla and extort money from him. “The fake cops intercepted the vehicle in which the real cops were sitting. They tried to flee after recognizing us but we chased them down,” Vyas added.
Those posing as fake cops have been identified as K C Patel (police inspector), R B Solanki (PSI), Jayanti Vaghela (ASI), Ramesh Bariya (police driver), Arvind Rajmahal (constable), Bachu Harijan (constable) and Nimesh Panchal (constable). Cops have seized Rs 15 lakh, three vehicles and 23 mobile phones from this gang.
