Trickster who duped NRI of ₹1.33cr arrested
MUMBAI: The Amboli police on Tuesday arrested a 49-year-old man for allegedly duping a Us-based NRI woman of ₹1.33 crore. Saurabh Pandey, a director of an entertainment company, Brainstorm Entertainment LLP, befriended the woman on a dating site and persuaded her to invest money in a company promising lucrative returns.
A police officer said that the woman got neither profit nor her capital back. Pandey threatened to harm her if she asked for her money and also allegedly molested her at a hotel.
On the NRI’S complaint, the Amboli police on Tuesday registered an FIR against Pandey, a Lucknow resident, and Vandana Krishna, both directors of the entertainment company. “Pandey was arrested on Tuesday and has been sent to five days’ police custody. The preliminary probe has revealed that he cheated many others, including some politicians, to the tune of ₹5 crore to ₹6 crore collectively,” said Bandopant Dadaso Bansode, senior inspector, Amboli police station. The complainant owns a data management firm in Georgia, US, and also has a flat in Jogeshwari
West. She met the accused on a dating app “happn” a few years ago and the two became close friends. Pandey told the complainant that he was a director of Brainstorm Entertainment LLP and was establishing a firm for the Indian Premier League. He added that if she invested money in his project, she could get a return of 15 percent per annum.
As Pandey sent the complainant a draft copy of the agreement, she trusted him, and over a year invested ₹1.33 crore in his project. Whenever she asked Pandey to sign the agreement, however, he would flare up and sidestep the issue.
The complainant’s sister revealed that the complainant, depressed after her husband died in an accident, came to India a few years earlier. It was here that she met Pandey on a dating app. “Pandey trapped my sister with his sweet talk, gained her trust and extracted money from her with fake stories,” she said.
Senior inspector Bansod said that there was already a criminal case registered against Pandey in Chandigarh. “We are digging deep into his past,” he said.