According to the police, the arrested person has been identified as Pratik Patel. (Representational/File)A timely intervention by highway traffic police, helped Mumbai police apprehend a 34-year-old man, wanted in a cheating case, who they were chasing for over six hours. The police said the person, who had created two bogus shopping websites to defraud women, had escaped in a Honda City in front of the police team from a bar in Dahisar. However, with Matunga police on his trail, the accused was caught after two hours at Manor toll naka after highway traffic police accosted his vehicle.
According to the police, the arrested person has been identified as Pratik Patel. The Matunga police, which was on the lookout for Patel, said they had come across a complaint made by a woman on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal.
The 35-year-old, who was to get married in May, was shopping for her wedding. She told police that she came across a website named nayasacollection.club on a social media platform.
“The website was offering an 80 per cent discount on clothes. As she wanted to gift cloth pieces to guests attending the wedding, she added a few clothing materials on her cart and subsequently placed an order by making an online payment,” said an investigator from Matunga police station.
She lodged a complaint on the cyber crime website after the products she ordered were not delivered. “As the woman was from Matunga, we approached her and filed her complaint,” said an officer, adding that after preliminary investigation the case was registered on August 10.
During the course of investigation, the police managed to get his contact number through an email id mentioned on the website. The investigators had since been trying to trace the culprit.
“We were keeping an eye on his location which kept changing. However on Tuesday, we came to know that he was in a lodge (hotel) at Dahisar,” said an investigating officer.
At around 2pm, the police learnt about his location following which a team, comprising sub inspector Prashant Kamble, constables Santosh Pawar, Kanchan Sapkale and Yashwant Ghadge, was dispatched.
The team reached the lodge at 4pm. “When we showed Patel’s photo to the people working in the lodge, they confirmed that he was staying here and had escaped sometime ago,” said an officer. Subsequently, through his call data record, the police traced him to a bar at Dahisar.
Another officer said, “When we entered the bar, he saw us and escaped through the back door. We then showed his picture to the manager who said he left two minutes ago.” When the police team went to catch him, the accused escaped in a black colour Honda City. “While chasing him, we realised that it would be difficult to catch him,” said an officer, adding, “We were aware that he is from Surat and would be returning to his house. So, we informed the highway traffic police officials at Manor toll naka.”
The police team then sent the picture of the culprit along with the details of his vehicles, following which at around 8pm on Tuesday, the highway traffic police officials stopped him and took him into custody.
The police added that the accused had created two shopping websites on social media — nayasacollection.club and Firangi sarees — through which he was duping women. The website would often offer 80 per cent discounts because of which women were attracted to the portal.