12 arrested in cheating case remanded in police custody

NASHIK: The 12 accused caught by the city crime branch in a case of cheating are suspected to be Bangladeshis. On Monday, a city court remanded them in police custody for two days.
As per police records, 11 accused are from Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and West Bengal. Only Mohsin Hussain Anwar Hussain is named a resident of Dhaka. Police sources said the 11 people who claim to be Indians have given fake addresses.They are from Bangladesh. They came to Nashik on January 9 and lived at Gangapur village in rented rooms.
DCP (crime) Sandeep Diwan said that the commissioner of police Kulwant Kumar Sarangal had received information that a gang was duping people for lakhs of rupees under the pretext of giving them American dollars at a lesser price.
Acting on the information, a trap was laid in the Bhadrakali area on Saturday. However, the culprits managed to flee. On Sunday, the police once again called one of the accused on his mobile phone, posing as customers, and expressed their willingness to pay Rs 5.50 lakh for 10 lakh American dollars.
Police inspector Bajirao Mahajan posed as a decoy businessman. The cops knew the modus operandi of the gang. They would call the customer with cash at a desolate place, beat him up and run away with his money. After Mahajan reached Dwarka, the culprits called him inside the bylanes, all the while confirming that he had the requisite cash. A team of the crime branch was covering Mahajan. No sooner did Mahajan sight two suspected gang members, he signalled his team and the crime branch sleuths pounced on them. The two were identified as Jamal Khan and Nurmattabbar Jabaramattabar. They told the police that their other accomplice lived in Gangapur village. Six of them were nabbed from Gangapur and four others who had fled the village were caught near the river banks.
The criminals have admitted to have cheated three people in Nashik. Further investigations are on.
DCP Diwan said the gang would approach hotel and eatery owners and show them American dollar bills asking them if they would accept them. This way they would convince the people around that they have such notes in large numbers and can get rid of them at a lesser price. This way they would approach gullible customers who would later be cheated of lakhs of rupees.
Sources informed that there were chances that the criminals may have given fake names. Though most of them are natives of Bangladesh having spent a few years in India, they are also considering them as Indians.
Diwan said there is no possibility of a terror link to the arrests so far.
The 12 accused, including four women, are Jamal Khan (27), Nurmattabbar Jabaramattabar (37), Mukesh Razzaq (27), Mohammad Shaikh (27), Mohammad Rafiq Shaikh (22), Johar Shiakh (32), Abdul Khan Jalil Khan (65), Mohsin Hussain Anwar Hussain (25), Firoza Begam Shaikh (30), Rina Shaikh (24), Reshma Dilal Husain Ali (24) and Sakina Jamal Khan (22).