Economic offences on the ascent

Pune: The city has witnessed a 20% increase in cases of cheating and other economic offences in 2016. According to the police, several complainants have invested money with fake firms without verifying their authenticity and have got involved in many business activities among themselves leading to financial disputes. The police also cited rapid urbanization as a cause of the increase in economic offences across the city.

Pune witnessed a spurt in cases of cheating, job frauds, criminal breach of trust, forgery of cheques and land documents. A few cases of counterfeiting too have been registered. The police registered 952 cases of cheating, 132 cases of criminal breach of trust, 20 cases of forgery and five of counterfeiting.

According to officers of the Economic Offenses Wing, a large number of cheating cases have been registered as cybercrimes under provisions of the Information Technology (IT) Act.

Deputy commissioner of police (economics & cyber) Sudhir Hiremath told TOI that economic offences are on the rise in the city. “In a majority of such offences, the suspects have managed to win the trust of the complainants by offering lucrative offers, such as handsome interest rates on investments and large amounts of bonus on investment,” he said.