Two held for conning over 50 shopkeepers

MUMBAI: Two persons who cheated more than 50 shop owners in the city were arrested recently.
The accused, Puranchand Jain and Bhoparam Chauhan, would order electronic appliances from stores and ask for the goods to be delivered at their ‘shop’.
The accused would then collect the goods from the delivery boy outside a random shop or residential building and vanish inside, saying that he would be back with the money.
The accused always ordered electronic appliances worth less than Rs 25,000 and sold them to their acquaintances at a discount. Many of their victims did not report the crime since the amount was quite low and they wanted to avoid legal complications, said a police officer.
Last month, Jain placed an order with a Santa Cruz shopkeeper and asked him to deliver the goods at his shop in Bandra (W). The delivery boy was unable to locate the shop and called Jain, who told him to give the goods to Chauhan, who was standing near a shop.
Jain told the boy to collect the money from him at a nearby hotel. When the delivery boy turned up at the hotel and didn’t find Jain there, he reported the case to the Bandra police.
On July 19, Jain tried the same trick on another shopkeeper, who knew the earlier victim. When Chauhan came to collect the goods, they nabbed him and handed him over to the Bandra police for interrogation. Jain was absconding, but was picked up by the Malad police in another case.
The accused were produced before a local court and remanded in police custody till August 4.