BJP worker who duped kin, cheated 10 others of Rs 25 lakh

Vadodara: Days after a BJP worker was arrested for cheating his brother-in-law of Rs 5.6 lakh by promising him a visa for Canada and a job in ONGC, 10 more people have accused him of taking Rs 25.5 lakh from them with similar promises.
Two more offences of cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy were registered against Chintan alias Chetan Patel at JP Road and Waghodiya police stations based on complaints lodged by the victims.
Sohil Hussain Sindhi, a resident of Dabhoi; Liaquat Sindhi and Imtiyaz Sindha, both residents of Tandalja; and Vishwarajsinh Vaghela, from Ahmedabad, were promised of a job in ONGC by Patel last year. The accused had told them he has influence as his father is a commissioner in the income tax department in Delhi while his elder brother is a managing director in ONGC. He had told the four youth that he will help them get a good job in the public sector company with a good pay package, but they will have to shell out Rs 5 lakh each for it.
The four victims got lured by Patel’s offer and gave him Rs 20 lakh cash. In September last year, Patel gave them fake joining letters for the post of public relations officers in ONGC with monthly salary of Rs 60,000. Police said that the letter even mentioned November 27, 2020 as the joining date.
But when they got the letters verified with ONGC office in Ahmedabad, they learnt that the letters were fake. The victims told police that they contacted Patel on learning the truth, but he stopped answering their calls and refused to return their money.
In March, Patel launched a residential project on Waghodiya Road and installed a banner on the project site inviting interested buyers to contact him. Rakesh Patel and his four friends showed interest in buying houses and paid token amounts of Rs 50,000 each. But Patel did not initiate construction and did not give a proper response to the buyers.
Police said that Patel had even taken over Rs 2.5 lakh from another Waghodiya resident Darshan Punjabi by promising him a visa for the United Kingdom. But this promise also turned out to be false as Patel did not return Punjabi’s passport nor his money.