Bid to make big money from small dollars notes falls flat

GURUGRAM: Two men were arrested on Thursday for allegedly trying to cheat a shopkeeper of Rs 5 lakh on the pretext of giving US dollars at cheap

exchange

rates. Instead of giving

US dollar

notes, though, they gave him a bundle of paper cuttings wrapped in a cloth.

The accused have been identified as Kolkata residents Mohammad Mabud Sheikh and Mohammad Jahangeer. Police said they are part of a

gang

of eight. Police are looking for the other members, including alleged kingpin Mohammad Palash.

The complainant, Dinesh Kumar, is originally from Baghpat in UP and has a pharmacy store on

Khandsa Road

. He told police that Sheikh visited his pharmacy around a month ago to buy a pain-relief balm. He said he didn’t have Indian currency and offered a US $1 banknote as payment.

Sheikh also told Kumar that he had 1,834 US dollar banknotes (the denomination was not specified) and was willing to exchange them for Rs 5 lakh. Over June, he visited the store and called Kumar several times to persuade him for the exchange.

“I agreed, and Sheikh told me to come to a spot near Sheetla Mata Mandir with the money around 7am on Thursday. I went there but he didn’t turn up. Later, he phoned me and told me to come there again at 6pm. When I reached the spot, Sheikh was waiting for me with Jahangeer. He showed me something wrapped in a blue cloth, which he said was a bundle of US dollars, and asked for the money,” Kumar said in his complaint.

“I told him that I had brought only Rs 2 lakh with me. Sheikh first handed me $140 in seven notes of $20 to show me that the notes were genuine, and then gave me the blue bundle, which he said contained 1,200 similar banknotes. He asked me to hand over the Rs 2 lakh to Jahangeer and said he’d come along with me to the store to collect the remaining money. I got suspicious about the entire thing and raised an alarm,” Kumar said.

Passersby gathered and caught the duo. Police was then informed through the intelligence information number (9354017145) recently launched by the police commissioner, and a team soon reached the spot and took the accused into custody.

When the bundle was opened, it was found to contain paper cuttings with a detergent bar in the middle to add weight. Kumar filed a police complaint the same day, on the basis of which an FIR was registered against all eight gang members under sections 450-511 (attempt to cheat) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC at Sector 5 police station.

During questioning, the accused confessed that they were trying to dupe Kumar. They were produced in a city court on Friday, which sent Jahangeer to judicial custody, while Sheikh was taken by police on a three-day remand for questioning.

“This is a gang of eight fraudsters, and the other six were present nearby when the duo was trying to dupe Kumar. The gang members, who mostly live in rented accommodations in Sohna, are led by a person identified as Mohammad Palash. We are conducting raids to nab them. The gang will be behind bars soon,” said sub-inspector Sakender Singh, the investigating officer.


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