Mumbai: A routine check of travellers’ baggage by the Govt Railway Police (GRP) at Andheri station uncovered a money-doubling fraud where a private contractor was duped of Rs 50 lakh.
The contractor had met three scammers at Andheri and was handed a bag which purportedly contained Rs 80 lakh. A police check revealed that the bag actually contained play money, with just a few authentic currency notes placed on top of each bundle. The shaken contractor later filed a police complaint.
The contractor is associated with an infrastructure company in Navi Mumbai. One of his acquaintances told him about three men who were offering a money-doubling scheme. The contractor discussed the scheme with partners of the infrastructure company.
In Jan, the contractor, accompanied by one of the company’s partners, had a meeting at a five-star hotel with the three men who ran the money-doubling scheme, Sugriv, Raman and John. The trio claimed they were involved in trading and earned a massive surplus.
On Feb 4, the contractor and one of the company partners went to Andheri (East) for another meeting with Sugriv, Raman and John. The contractor was carrying Rs 50 lakh in cash, which belonged to the infrastructure company. They met the trio at a restaurant outside Andheri station and handed them the bag containing Rs 50 lakh. In exchange, the contractor was given a red bag purportedly containing Rs 80 lakh. He was told that the balance of Rs 20 lakh would be given to him shortly.
While Raman and John sat at the restaurant with the company partner, the contractor accompanied Sugriv into the Andheri station building to collect the rest of the money from the latter’s representative. To their surprise, a police team present inside the station was carrying out random checks of travellers’ baggage and intercepted the contractor. He was asked to open the red bag and reveal its contents.
The contractor was horrified when the bag was found containing play money with just a few genuine currency notes on the top of the bundles. The contractor immediately called the company partner, who was seated at the restaurant, to alert him that they had been conned. The partner replied that both Raman and John had left with their bag containing Rs 50 lakh.
“The contractor was badly shaken. It took him a few days to process everything. On the basis of his statement, we registered an FIR on Feb 7 on charges of cheating against the three scammers,” a GRP official said.