23YROLD MAN ARRESTED FOR DUPING GOVANDI WOMAN OF ₹28L

MUMBAI: The Govandi police have arrested a 23-year-old man for allegedly cheating a lab technician of ₹28 lakh.

Javed Khan, a Dadar resident, fooled the woman by claiming she would receive a bonus on her insurance policy if she paid all the instalments — in cash — in 18 months.

Bharati Parab, 26, a resident of Chembur and a retired lab technician, had invested in an insurance policy and was paying her instalment for the past five years.

In January 2016, Parab received a call from an unknown person, who claimed to be an executive from the insurance company.

“He threatened the woman that her policy would be discontinued because of the new tax rules and that she would need to pay a processing fee if she wanted the policy to be continued,” said a police officer.

“The accused further gave fake assurances to the woman that she would be able to claim a bonus on her insurance policy of around ₹50 lakh, and would get an additional ₹90 lakh in the future,”

In her complaint, Parab told the police that from January 2016 to date she paid ₹28 lakh to the accused in multiple instalments.

“We registered a case under sections 419 and 420 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and sections 66C and 66D of the Information Technology Act,” said Shashikant Mane, senior police inspector, Govandi police station.

“The accused was arrested on Friday. He was produced in court and remanded in police custody for six days,” said Shashikant Pawar, police inspector, Govandi police station.

Police believe that Khan is part of a syndicate that focused on cheating people through various scams.

“We discovered that it is a syndicate which is working and has cheated many people. The accused once came to collect cash from the complainant’s residence and also asked the victim to transfer the money into different accounts. We were able to trace him using these details. We are investigating the matter and are in search of the gang that is operating in Mumbai,” said a police officer.