Nashik: Two booked for duping gym owner of Rs 6 lakh

NASHIK: Two people have been booked by the police for allegedly cheating a gym owner of Rs 6 lakh on the pretext of running the facility on rental basis.
Nishikant Suryawanshi (53), a resident of Bali Mandir, Panchavati, has a gymnasium at Sitaram Chambers on Peth Road. Two people, hailing from Wadala village in Nashik city, approached him to take the gym on lease.
Suryawanshi rented out the gym in March 2019, along with equipment worth Rs 6 lakh. The business at the gym was going on smoothly for quite some time.
However, tensions started brewing between Suryawanshi and the two suspects over the conduct of the gym over the past few days. Suryawanshi said when the two suspects started defaulting on payment of dues, he asked them to honour the agreement he had signed with them.
A few days later, Suryawanshi learnt that some of the equipment had gone missing from the gym. When he asked them about the missing equipment, they made excuses claiming that the equipment was sent for repairs. Later, Suryawanshi learnt that the two suspects had allegedly sold the equipment to a person in Bhiwandi. He then lodged a complaint at Panchavati police station.
Police said they have launched a manhunt for the suspects. They have also searched their residences but the suspects were not there. “We have booked the suspects under section 420 (cheating) and 406 (breach of trust) of the IPC,” said a police officer attached with Panchavati police.