The Goregaon Police have arrested two men for allegedly cheating a number of shopkeepers on the pretext of providing goods at a wholesale rate, taking bulk orders to the tune of lakhs of rupees and delivering only biscuits, valued at hardly a few thousands of rupees. Police suspect the men have duped many others using the same operandi and further probe is underway.
According to police sources, the arrested duo used a modus operandi of introducing themselves as salesmen of a major wholesale distribution company, who were willing to fill up the grocery stores with new produce at a cheap rate. The only condition the duo put forward was to give bulk order to the tune of lakhs of rupees. The incident occurred on February 20, when the accused duo, identified as Dhananjay Chaurasiya, 27, and Pappu Gupta, 43, had cheated the complainant by giving only biscuits instead of the actual products.
The complainant then approached Goregaon Police, who registered a case against the duo and began the probe. Police scrutinized the CCTV camera footage of the area and activated their network of informers and nabbed them in three days. During the investigation, police learnt that the accused duo had cheated a score of people using the same modus operandi in Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai and Palghar.
The duo has been booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code for cheating and common intention. Police said that the accused had cheated the complainant of ₹1 lakh and have recovered ₹80,000 of it. Police have now asked other people who could have been victims of the accused duo.
