Hindustan Times (Delhi)

Two arrested for selling stolen bikes online with fake profiles and papers

- Anvit Srivastava anvit.srivastava@htlive.com

NEWDELHI: The Delhi Police have arrested two Class 8 dropouts who created fake profiles on online classified­s portal OLX to sell vehicles they stole from different areas in the Capital.

The two men, a driver and a travel agent , also used photo editing mobile apps to change their photograph­s in their profile on the website. Several forged Aadhar cards, vehicle RCS, driving licences, and SIM cards along with three stolen two-wheelers were recovered from them, police said. Apart from selling stolen bikes, the two men robbed clients after getting their contact details from OLX.

OLX did not reply to queries sent on e-mail and SMS.

This is not the first incident where the online shopping portal has been used by criminals. In July 2017, a Nigerian was arrested by Bengaluru cyber police when he took photos of luxury cars parked in posh areas of the city and posted their images on OLX, pretending to sell the cars at very low rates and accepting advance payments from prospectiv­e customers. Also in December, another man reportedly fell prey to cyber fraudsters on OLX and lost Rs 5.5 lakh. The fraudsters had posted an advertisem­ent to sell a 2013 model SUV. After the victim paid the amount, he was not delivered the vehicle.

Police said the two men in the current case are Amir Khan,24, a travel agent and Mohammad Uvais, 24, a driver, both residents of Loni in Ghaziabad. Police recovered three motorcycle­s, keys of 12 two-wheelers and blank registrati­on number plates from them. The money earned was spent on exclusive watches and perfumes and on outstation trips with their girlfriend­s.

Deputy commission­er of police (northeast), Atul Kumar Thakur said that in the last few months there were many cases of cheating related to OLX. In most cases, the victims were duped by those who had posted advertisem­ents to sell second-hand bikes.

“In a number of incidents, it was also reported that buyers who approached owners of twowheeler­s through the online shopping portal, fled with bikes and valuables of the sellers. On technical analysis of these mobile numbers it was found that the numbers were used in different localities of Loni, Ghaziabad,” Thakur said.

He said raids were conducted in Delhi and UP. “A police team then approached the OLX office for help. The shopping portal helped police with clues about the accused. Our probe led to their identifica­tion and they were arrested from Yamuna Vihar on Thursday,” the DCP said. NEW DELHI: The narcotics control bureau (NCB) on Friday arrested a 41-year-old man at Delhi airport with three kilogram of heroin worth over ₹3 crore.

The drug was smuggled into India from Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. The woman, a Tanzanian had hidden the contraband at the bottom of his trolley bag.

NCB officials said Mussa Azizi Marande had landed at Hyderabad airport from Nairobi on May 23, even as he had to deliver the consignmen­t of heroin to a drug dealer in Delhi. They said Mussa chose this new transit route to avoid detection by the NCB and other drug enforcemen­t agencies.

“The traffickin­g of heroin from African countries such as Kenya into India is a new trend observed in the recent time,” said Madho Singh, NCB’S zonal director.

On Sunday, a Brazilian woman was caught at the Delhi airport with 930 grams of cocaine.

 ?? SOURCED ?? The accused, Amir and Uvais (in masks), in police custody. They were arrested from Yamuna Vihar in northeast Delhi.
SOURCED The accused, Amir and Uvais (in masks), in police custody. They were arrested from Yamuna Vihar in northeast Delhi.

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