Gangaprasad offered to work as an agent on commission basis, telling Salvadgi that his contacts will help him get massive profit, police said.A 41-year-old man was arrested in Dahisar recently for allegedly cheating a businessman of Rs 36.66 lakh. The accused has been identified as Virendra Pandey. The alleged mastermind of the scam, Gangaprasad Pandey, is still on the run.
According to police, the complainant, Madansaheb Salvadgi, approached them several months ago. Salvadgi, police said, claimed that Gangaprasad had gone bankrupt in November 2018 after he incurred huge losses in his business. Pandey, police said, owed Salvadgi money. Since Gangaprasad ran a logistics company, Salvadgi decided to use Gangaprasad’s contacts for his business, police said.
Gangaprasad offered to work as an agent on commission basis, telling Salvadgi that his contacts will help him get massive profit, police said.
But later, Gangaprasad took work from 68 companies and collected an advance payment to supply them goods. He even took money from the complainant under the pretext that he will invest in two new logistics companies, police said. But the new companies turned out to be false, police said.
“He gave names of the companies that were being run by the accused, Virendra Pandey. The second company was being run by one of his relatives. The company was never on paper,” said an officer.
Salvadgi realised he had been duped after he approached the 68 companies for his payment, who said they had already handed over the cheques to Gangaprasad.
An officer added, “The complainant had little knowledge about the business being done on his behalf by Pandey and blindly trusted him.”
After conducting a preliminary investigation, Dahisar police registered a case under relevant sections of cheating, cheating by impersonation and common intention, after which they laid a trap and arrested Virendra on Monday.
