One held for ‘robbing Karnataka native using spiked chocolates’

Mumbai police have arrested a 28-year-old man for allegedly duping a man from Karnataka and stealing valuables from him. The police said the accused would offer his targets chocolate mixed with a sedative, and he would walk away with their valuables after they fell unconscious.

The complainant, Shailesh Sutar arrived in the city on March 16. The police said he recently got a job with a Saudi Arabia based company, and the company officials had asked him to go through a medical examination at a medical institute in south Mumbai.

The complainant in his statement to the police said, “In order to get the medical check-up done, I got off the train in the wee hours on March 16. Later I reported to the company’s office in Santacruz which asked me to go to GAMCA medical center in South Mumbai for the check-up. Following which I was asked to go to a medical centre in Kurla.”

The complainant alleged that he found several other aspirants in the GAMCA medical centre, and one of them, Mohomed Hussain Din Nabi Siddique, introduced himself. He said he had got a job in Kuwait and he too was directed to their Kurla centre for medical examination.

The complainant said, “As both of us were asked to report to Kurla center, we decided to go by train. Mid-way he offered me a chocolate and claimed the chocolate will help me clear the medical examination better.”

When the duo were on their way to the Kurla based medical centre, the complainant started losing consciousness, following which they decided to sit at the bus depot.

“We sat at the bus depot and I started losing my consciousness and I could see that the accused was taking all my belongings. But as I was drugged I couldn’t move, and when I regained my consciousness, I found myself in a hospital with policemen around me,” said the complainant in his statement to police.

Kurla police registered a case under sections 328 (causing hurt by means of poison, etc., with intent to commit an offence) and 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the Indian Penal Code.

On Friday, south Mumbai based DB Marg police laid a trap near Grant Road station and nabbed the accused, a resident of Jogeshwari, they claimed. As the case was registered with Kurla police station, the accused was handed over to them. The police said the accused had been arrested earlier as he has been duping others using a similar modus operandi for three years.