Wagholi bizman cheated of Rs71 L, two held

Pune: Two people have been arrested for allegedly cheating a Wagholi businessman (32) of Rs70.9 lakh on the pretext of helping him set up a call centre for food delivery and car rentals.

The Kharadi police on Sunday arrested two of the seven suspects — a 23-year-old woman and a 32-year-old man identified as Tushar Maheshkumar Talpada alias Tushar Patel. The duo are residents of Ahmedabad. “We are looking for the other five people, who have also been identified,” said senior inspector Sanjay Chavan of the Kharadi police station.

“The suspects used international cellphone numbers to gain the victim’s trust. They pretended to call from Dubai, while they were actually in Ahmedabad,” the officer said.

Police said the complainant owned a company that provided customer support services to online food delivery platforms. In Jan, he came to know about a firm through social media claiming to be in a related business. He contacted them and the suspects said they were based in Dubai and had various projects with them. The man selected a food delivery platform and a car rental project for his customer support services.

Thereafter, the suspects invited the businessman to Dubai. They presented him with details about various companies and allegedly took money from him in the form of deposits and other expenses. They instructed him to set up an office in Pune with a seating capacity for 45 people.

Later, the man realised that no such company existed and he had been cheated. He approached the Kharadi police station and lodged a complaint, following which the police registered a case and arrested two of the accused.