MUMBAI: A school dropout and his accomplice were recently arrested for allegedly duping people in lakhs of rupees after placing fake ads of sale of electronics products on an online trading platform.
Mastermind Salman Shaikh (28) reportedly used a garage worker's bank account to which the victims are asked to transfer money for the products ordered but never delivered. With the help of technical help, the Versova police arrested Shaikh and his associate Mohsin Khan (29) on February 8 from Andheri (East) in a case of siphoning off Rs7.23 lakh from Sachin Naik, a manager employed with a city-based private company. Shaikh has to splurge the entire money on a lavish lifestyle and pay rent in a flat in Andheri (East).
The case was registered in August (during the lockdown) 2020 when Naik came across multiple ads of electronic goods being sold at less than the market price. Shaikh has used his friends’ document to get mobile SIM and used it in fraudulent activity.
“Shaikh does not hold a bank account in his name nor SIM card in his name that could have helped in tracking him. He immediately withdrew money from the account, which belongs to garage workers, before the account froze. We have got the bank statements that showed fraudulent transactions in lakhs of rupees,” said a police officer of the Versova police station.
The police team—DCP Abhishek Trimukhe, Versova police senior inspector Siraj Inamdar, inspector Sanjay Pawar, sub-inspector Ganpat Dhaigude—were tracking Shaikh after he duped Naik in between July 25 and August 8 (in 2020) when he came across electronic products placed on sale on the online trading platform.
In the complaint, Naik said, “The ad was placed by one Samir who informed that he has got a wide range of electronic goods which he gets from customs and sells at 50% less price. This made me place orders for nine Televisions, three washing machines, five home theatres, two cameras, five mobiles, an apple watch, 10 laptops, an i-pad, mac pro book and sound bar. But I learned I was duped when I did not get the delivery.”
Sub-inspector Dhaigude said the complainant had planned to hand over the laptops to his friend who is a school teacher and wanted to provide it to the students. “The accused has used old address documents of Goregaon locality so that the police will not be able to track him,” he said. Senior inspector Inamdar said Shaikh has been booked under sections of the Indian Penal Code and IT Act for cheating and identity thefts.