Hyderabad: Though several businessmen fall prey to fraudsters, not many of them come forward and file complaints because they feel ashamed of the way they were cheated, says Avinash Mohanty, DCP of the Detective Department of the Central Crime Station (CCS), Hyderabad. He adds that the public should remain cautious in order to avoid falling into the traps of criminal gangs.
“Businessmen should not indulge in shady ways making money in the first place. One should be very careful while making a deal with an unknown party,” he says.
On January 30, sleuths of a special team from the Hyderabad CCS arrested two natives of Gujarat, Kakal Husen alias Basheer alias Farook alias Ashvak (42), and Juneja Latif Mahamad (37), who had been cheating people all over country under the guise of operating a gold business.
“They contact people in the gold jewellery business through social media and offer to arrange for gold at less than the market rate. When their victims contact them, they take their money and flee claiming to be Customs officials conducting a raid,” says Mr Mohanty. He says that businessmen should know that the value of gold is the same throughout the country.
In the month of June last year, the Hyderabad Police nabbed two gangs and seized '38 lakh from them. The arrested men, Shakeel (26), a student, and Akbar (35), a transporter from Haryana, had kidnapped Praduman Lohia, the director of Gajanan Tamra Industries in Cherlapally, a leading manufacturer of copper wires, and Bharat Lila, a relative of his.
“The accused asked to meet with the victims under the pretext of conducting business. The victims went to meet them, with cash, without conducting proper background checks. They were taken captive and kept hostage until their families paid for their release. They were even robbed of their valuables and belongings,” says K.C.S. Raghuvir, Additional DCP of the CCS.
Attractive returns is cheats’ sure-fire method of luring
Fraudsters target wealthy businessmen and goldsmiths and lure them with attractive offers, which they easily fall prey to, says Avinash Mohanty, DCP of the Detective Department of the Central Crime Station (CCS), Hyderabad.
“Men conducting business should always check the other party’s legitimacy. If a businessman is told that he will get higher returns and is promised amusing profits, he should know that the deal is not legal,” the DCP says.
Cops from the Hyderabad CCS nabbed and arrested Santa Kumar, the previously-absconding organiser of Korcha, an interstate criminal gang known to target wealthy men under the guise of selling them “unearthed gold,” two months ago.
Santa Kumar, a resident of the Davangere district of Karnataka, would call his victims and convince them he knew them very well. He would tell them that an old man had found a pot containing about 2 kg of gold, which he wanted to sell for cheap due to financial problems. He would ask his victims to come to the Shimoga district of Karnataka to collect a sample of the gold.
“The victim would go and meet members of the gang at an isolated spot. He would return with four pellets of gold, which he would get verified as real. He would then go back with lakhs of rupees to purchase the entire lot of gold, only to receive a lot of brass,” says Mr Mohanty.
