PUNE: A land developer lost Rs 90,000 after four men promised to exchange more than US$ 24,200 at a throwaway rate.
The four men, suspected to be Bangladeshi nationals, have been arrested by the Hadapsar police. “We are in the process of verifying their nationality,” said senior inspector Sunil Tambe.
The suspects —
Shahid Khan,
Suman Khan, Anik Shaikh and
Nahid Rahman — have been booked under sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating) and 34 (common intention) of the
Indian Penal Code on Sunday.
According to police, the suspects got hold of Mukhtar’s mobile number from a website and contacted him under the pretext of selling an open plot at Sonar Galli.
He visited the plot on August 17 and discussed the matter with the four men. At the time, they showed him a 20-dollar note. When Mukhtar confirmed that the note was genuine, the suspects told him that they had 1,210 notes of the same denomination, and agreed to give them to him for just Rs 1,5 lakh. On Monday, the exchange rate for 24,200 US dollars was Rs 17.22 lakh.
Eager to make a killing, Mukhtar agreed. He met the suspects the following day, when they gave him a packet containing the US dollars in exchange for Rs 90,000. Mukhtar opened the packet, saw only waste paper and realized he was duped. After trying to trace the four men for over two weeks, he approached the police on Sunday.
A team led by sub-inspector Mangesh Bhange traced and detained the men and recovered 250 US dollars from them.
Representative Image
