Nagpur, Nov 5
A trader from Gujarat has been duped of `85 lakhs by five criminals from the city under the name of giving him `50 crore equity. When Patel realised that he has been cheated and duped and demanded his money back, he was abused and threatened on gun-point. The Ajni police has registered a case in this matter on Wednesday.
The trader Paresh Govinddas Patel (57), is a resident of Kapalganj and has been cheated from June 2018. Patel needed money as he wanted to invest in cold storage facility in Nagpur. An accused named Shabbir Bhai got in touch with him in 2018. He informed Patel that there are equity agents in Nagpur. On June 15, 2018 Shabbir introduced Patel to Mukesh Tarachand Gandhi (48), resident of Bhagwatinagar, Pramod alias Pappu Krishnakumar Awasthi (resident of Jagannade Chowk), Sultan Bhai (Mumbai) and Mehend singh Sattasingh (resident of Mumbai) at Hanuman Nagar in Ajni. They said that the total expense to get `50 crore equity will be around that much and they will charge three per cent commission on top of it.
After that, the team from Ahmedabad will come to Nagpur and do the assessment and the total expenses would be `60 lakhs. The five accused took `85 lakhs from Patel, but he did not get the equity. Patel got restless and came to city in November and asked for his money back, this irked the accused and they threatened to kill him. Frightened Patel rushed to the Crime Branch. The matter was handed over to D M Chandan from crime branch and after investigation, the Ajni police has filed a case of fraud on Wednesday and further investigations are on.
Main accused under arrest
The police has arrested main accused Mukesh Gandhi and Pappu Awasthi and presented them in the court and obtained PCR till November 9. Gandhi runs a mobile shop to fool people, but he has been engaged in duping people along with Awasthi. They had duped traders of crores of rupees during demonetisation.
Network across states
The accused have network across Delhi, Mumbai, Gujarat and other states. Brokers like Shabbir are appointed in many states and they lure needy businessmen and hand them over to this gang. Cases have been registered against this gang and some of the members are in the wanted list, informed Mumbai police.