In past 3 days, five booked for fraud, Rs 25 lakh seized

Kolkata: Five persons were arrested in the past three days for allegedly duping a Kolkata resident using the name and logo of a popular plywood manufacturer.

According to Police, on March 4, a man Ankit Bhatia lodged a complaint at Park Street Police Station alleging that a fraudster, posing as the owner of a renowned plywood manufacturing company, called RK Agarwal, a resident of Kolkata and requested to arrange Rs 50 lakh. Following that, Agarwal called the complainant’s father, Vijay Kumar Bhatia, and asked him to arrange for the cash. The cash was handed over to two persons who impersonated the representatives of the plywood company owner.

It was also alleged that to gain trust, the fraudsters used the company’s logo as their WhatsApp display picture. During the investigation, police checked CCTV footage of the area where the money was handed over to the fraudsters. Police learnt that three accused persons Waqab Mohammad Javed Chandiwala, Riyaz Razi Sayed and Sachin Manohar Prasad are from Nalasopara in Maharashtra. A police team was sent to Nalasopara and on March 13, the trio was arrested. On March 14, another accused Pawan Shaw alias Sweet was arrested from Phoolbagan area. Next day, two more accused, Mahendra Pal Singh and Chetan Singh Dahiya, were arrested from Pollock Street. During the raids conducted for three consecutive days, police seized several incriminating documents along with nearly Rs 25 lakh. The investigation is underway to find out whether the accused persons used such a method to cheat other people.