The accused, K Boopathy (31) of Chengalpattu is only pursing his legal degree at a university in Andhra Pradesh and is not a lawyer as claimed, said police. 

According to police, one of the victims, Ahmed Farooq (41) of Mangadu, runs a meat shop in Tambaram where Boopathy visited often in the recent past. Whenever he visited the shop, he struck up a conversation with Farooq, during which he claimed that he was a practising lawyer and that he was close to Customs officials working at Chennai airport. Boopathy claimed that he received a lot of iPhones seized by the Customs officials at the airport for a much cheaper price, and has been selling them to his friends for a smaller commission.

 

Believing him, Farooq paid him Rs 5 lakh to buy mobile phone handsets in bulk, planning to sell them to his friends and relatives. 

After receiving the money, Boopathy took him on his bike to a building in Tambaram and asked him to wait near the bike as he took the stair to the upper floor. But he did not return. After a while, Farooq went to check, only to realise that the bike had gone missing when he returned. Based on his complaint, Tambaram police registered a case and tracked Boopathy with the help of his phone number. During the investigation, police also found that he has cheated S Venkatraman of Tiruvarur district to the tune of Rs 20 lakh on the promise of getting him laptops in bulk.

Sources in the city police said that Boopathy was unemployed, and suspect that he could have cheated more people in similar manner as he has built a new house. A cash of Rs 30,000 was retrieved from him before he was remanded in judicial custody on Thursday.