Police suspect involvement of 'rice puller scam' gangs; probe on.
The Goregaon police have booked four members of a gang for allegedly duping a Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) contractor to the tune of Rs 1.30 crore.
The accused had allegedly lured the complainant contractor to buy an “antique piece” from a person, and sell it to a company abroad for Rs 500 crore. For this, the complainant was made to pay a processing fee of Rs 1.30 crore, and he later discovered that he was duped.
The complainant, Vasant Shetty, is a Goregaon West resident and takes on contracts for BMC’s mechanical works. In January this year, Shetty received a phone call from Babu Shaikh — a resident of Kolkata — who told him that one of his relatives had an “antique piece”, which he planned to sell to an international company called “Universal Group”.
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Shaikh also urged Shetty to complete the deal. The seller needed to pay an advance processing fee — which Shaikh’s relative did not have — so, Shaikh offered Shetty to invest money in the deal and make an unbelievable profit, states the FIR. Since Shetty needed some money, he decided to be part of the deal. Fifteen days after the call, Shetty received another call from one Arjun Sharma, who gave Shaikh’s reference. Sharma claimed to be the “marketing manager of Universal Group”, and told Shetty that the “super antique piece” was packed, ready for sale following a “rice pulling test”.
On April 28, Shetty received an email from “Universal Group”, which stated that the value of the said “antique piece” was fixed at Rs 200 crore, and the same would be paid to Shetty. It also stated that half the money would be paid in cash, while the remaining would be deposited in his account. The email also stated that Shetty would have to pay 0.1 per cent of the overall amount of the deal — as processing fee — to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), reads a police statement.
In May, Shetty met Sharma and his “company co-ordinator” Sneha Doshi at a five-star hotel in Vile Parle, who requested the former to pay the processing fee at the earliest. According to police, after Shetty paid the accused Rs 20 lakh — an electronic funds transfer — the duo told Shetty that the value of the “antique piece” had gone up to Rs 500 crore due to its high demand.
On May 15, Shetty received an email from “Universal Group”, stating that Shetty would receive Rs 60 crore in cash and the remaining Rs 440 crore via Western Union’s money transfer in 15 days. So, Shetty paid another Rs 60 lakh — summing up to a total of Rs 80 lakh — for the processing fee. That month, Shetty received another call from one Eric Tiga, who said that he was assigned to deliver Rs 60 crore (cash) to Shetty. Tiga, however, demanded Rs 1 crore commission in advance, and he settled for Rs 50 lakh after a tough bargain.
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On June 21, Shetty met Sharma and another unidentified person in a Malad hotel and handed over Rs 50 lakh (cash) — now totalling Rs 1.3 crore — to the duo, hoping to get Rs 60 crore in the next few days. Shetty waited for weeks, but did not receive any money. When he contacted Sharma and Doshi, they shared postponed dates with him for the money delivery, and eventually started ignoring Shetty’s calls. That is when Shetty realised that “he was duped”.
Shetty immediately filed a complaint with the Goregaon police, who booked Shaikh, Sharma, Doshi, and Tiga under Indian Penal Code sections 406 (punishment for criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention). According to police sources, they suspect the involvement of “rice puller scam” gangs, whose members have been cheating many people across states, in the case and are investigating the same.
The “rice-pulling machine scam” involves fraudsters marketing a device made up of copper or iridium that they claim possesses magical properties and attracts rice grains towards it. The fraudsters usually claim that the machine is in high demand internationally, and big companies and research organisations would pay several crores for its possession. They then cheat common citizens on its pretext, said police.
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First published on: 30-08-2023 at 21:34 IST
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