Man seeks 'friends', conned Friendship Club Fraud

Vasant Gosavi was perhaps just hoping to make some new friends when he enrolled in the Nandani Friendship Club. But he forgot to read the fine print. The 58-year-old was conned of Rs13.64 lakh by the club, which promised to 'cater' to his needs.
After having nabbed a member of the club — Anil Kumar Maurya, the police suspect the hand of an inter-state gang that lures people into joining the club and later blackmails them.
According to the police sources, Gosavi, a resident of Mahavir Nagar in Kandivali (W) who works as an accountant at a city-based college, had come across an advertisement for Nandani Friendship Club in a newspaper a few months ago.
The intrigued accountant called up at the office number of the club and his phone was answered by one Sagar.
"Sagar told him to deposit Rs4,000 to become a member of the club and assured that he will be introduced to a few girls to strike up a friendship. Gosavi deposited Rs4,000 in a bank account given to him by Sagar," said a crime branch officer.
Since that day, Gosavi has paid around Rs13.64 lakh in different instalments to the club. "The club has been taking money from him for providing more entertainment. However, the club could not deliver as promised by them. Whenever Gosavi used to call up the club, members used to blackmail him by saying that they would defame him in public," said a police officer.
Once the relations soured, Gosavi realised that he had been cheated and lodged a complaint with the Charkop police station.
The Kandivali unit of the crime branch was also doing parallel investigations into the case and arrested Maurya.
"Maurya revealed that while he is the Mumbai point-person of the gang, the racket operates from Varanasi and Mirjapur district in Uttar Pradesh. We suspect several people could have been cheated by this club. We have also learnt that a bank manager has also been cheated of Rs5 lakh by the club on a similar pretext," said a crime branch officer.