Surat: 15,000 duped of Rs 1.5 crore with Rs 1,000 tablet bait

SURAT: Frauds amassed around Rs 1.5 crore from nearly 15,000 students promising them tablets worth Rs4,500 for a meagre Rs 1,000 only. Police booked three accused on Wednesday involved in the online marketing gimmick and operating the fraud racket since October 2020.
Owner of Yash World Private Ltd, Savan Kheni, his father Thakarshi and partner Ashwin Vaghani were booked for allegedly running the racket from their office in Diamond World Tower at Mini Bazaar in Varachha. The accused were granted seven days’ anticipatory bail by a local court on Wednesday, after which cops can arrest them.
The fraud came to light when several people started raising questions, both online and offline, about not receiving the tablet despite paying the amount a few months ago. Initially around 7,000 victims approached the police, but later the number grew to 15,000.
“On coming to know that it was a fraud scheme, many people started approaching the police. The accused claimed that they supplied around 15,000 tablets to buyers but later their funds dried up and they could not arrange for more gadgets,” a police officer told TOI.
The accused purchased the tablets for Rs 4,500 and were offering it for Rs 1,000 to the students. “They had planned to enter into a contract with Google to run specific advertisements on the tablet for which they were hoping to receive good money. They were supposed to sell at least 5 lakh tablets, only when the contract would come into force,” cops said.
The accused confessed of making a mistake in calculating the initial investment.
Police booked the accused under various sections of Indian Penal Code including cheating, criminal breach of trust and also sections of Gujarat Protection of Interest Depositors (In Financial Establishments) Act.