Woman arrested for duping businessman of Rs 32 lakh posing as day collector

SURAT: A 46-year-old woman was arrested by cops from an area under the jurisdiction of Adajan police station on Sunday for duping a businessman of Rs32.40 lakh by posing as deputy collector posted in Vadodara Urban Development Authority (VUDA). She promised to get a file of the complainant cleared from Surat district collector’s office for which she took money and also failed to pay rent amounting to Rs4.32 lakh to him for his house.

Police arrested Neha Patel, a resident of Baben village in Surat district, on Sunday for allegedly duping Sanjay Morkar, a resident of Palanpur Patiya. A court remanded the accused in police custody for two days as cops wanted to interrogate her to know if she had similarly duped others.

Patel came in contact with the complainant through a known person while searching for a rented accommodation in 2010. She went to stay in the house owned by Morkar, who is into fishing and prawn business. She had submitted a copy to him of an identity card which showed her as deputy collector of VUDA and it carried the purported signature of VUDA commissioner.

She became irregular in paying rent and over period of time it totalled around Rs4.32 lakh. She offered to get a file related to fishing business of the complainant cleared from Surat district collector’s office. She told Morkar that it will cost Rs50 lakh and he paid her a total of Rs32.50 lakh in instalments.

She went to stay at Jahangirpura in 2016 and later shifted to Baben village. “She had promised Morkar that his file will be cleared in 2017 but when there was no progress, the complainant realized that he had been cheated. He then lodged a police complaint,” said a police officer of Adajan police station.