Loan fraudster cheats bank, finance company of Rs 5 crore using same property documents, held

A conman who allegedly submitted property documents of an Andheri Lokhandwala resident to procure mortgage loans from Dena Bank as well as a finance company and siphoned off Rs 5 crore has been arrested.


Oshiwara police on Monday arrested Rajesh Dhanukar (45) under IPC sections for cheating, forgery, breach of trust and criminal conspiracy. He was produced before the Andheri metropolitan magistrate which has remanded him to police custody till July 28. Police have launched a search for his aides.

On July 12, police arrested his aide Ravindra Gambir, who spilled the beans on his whereabouts.

The complainant is Sangeeta Jhunjhunwala, a resident of Rushi Towers, Lokhandwala Complex. She had taken a loan of Rs 2.9 crore in 2016 from the Manish Nagar branch of Dena Bank by mortaging her twin flats. Dhanukar had helped her procure the loan. Police said she initially paid a few instalments. But after she started defaulting on her EMIs, she decided to sell off her flats worth Rs 6 crore. Dhanukar told her Rakesh Chakravarthy was interested in buying the properties.

Dhanukar drew up a sale deed agreement, NOC and other documents, including registration papers. Without her knowledge, Chakravarthy and Dhanukar allegedly mortgaged her twin flats to Fullerton India and took a loan of Rs 4.88 crore. “The duo, in connivance with officials of UCO Bank (Borivli branch), opened a fictitious account in the name of Sangeeta Jhunjhunwala and siphoned off the money by transferring it to 12 accounts belonging to their accomplices. The money was later transferred to the personal accounts of Dhanukar and Chakravarthy,” said an official.

The beneficiaries were Dhanukar, Chakravarthy and Gambir, said senior inspector Shailesh Pasalwar. The duo then allegedly made duplicate documents of Jhunjhunwala’s flats and handed over the papers to Dena Bank. The bank filed an application before the chief metropolitan magistrate’s court. It took possession of the flats and auctioned them. Dena Bank sold the flats to Haryana resident Sranik Jain. During probe, it transpired that the EOW, Versova police, Amboli police and Bandra police were looking for Dhanukar and his associates in similar cases.

Versova police are likely to take custody of Dhanukar in a cheating case where he, along with Hardik Gothi and his wife Nancy, allegedly conned an NRI of Rs 3 crore. The Gothis, who have been granted interim bailalleged they were duped by Dhanukar. 

In hope of role in SS Rajamouli film, lawyer lost Rs 50 lakh

A conman who posed as a producer of many Tollywood films, and claimed close contacts with prominent director such as SS Rajamouli, was arrested by Task Force sleuths on Thursday for duping a woman advocate of Rs 50 lakh by assuring her of providing a character artiste role in the upcoming movie RRR.


The police arrested three persons, which includes the prime accused, V Naresh Kumar.

Task Force sleuths said that Naresh Kumar alias Aditya, through an online directory, randomly selected an advocate’s number and telephoned to seek her legal advice. The accused, by introducing himself as film producer and after speaking to her on few occasions, asked her whether she is interested to work in films. On one occasion, claiming that he is making her speak to Rajamouli over phone, he conned her by imitating the director’s voice. After gaining her confidence, he assured to provide her a character role in the upcoming movie.

On the pretext of taking membership for her in Film Chamber, Movie Artiste Association (MAA) and other organisations, the accused made the victim transfer Rs 50 lakh between January and June of this year.

“Claiming that his car is under repair, Aditya asked the victim to give her Maruti Dzire car, and she obliged. But the accused did not return the car. Later, Naresh’s friends also started asking the victim to give them money. When she claimed that she is left with no money, they started to use filthy language against her,” police said in a press note.

According to police, Naresh in the past was booked by Guntur police in a cheating case. Police also arrested Rama Krishna and Somanna. 

Shreyas Talpade warns a digital platform as a conman or a woman impersonates his wife Deepti

Shreyas Talpade, who received appreciation for his negative avatar in his last outing 'Setters' is facing a trouble from a digital platform.
Today, he took to his twitter handle and revealed that his wife Deepti Talpade is facing an online fraud and that some conman or a woman is impersonating as his wife. The con is also claiming to be a the leading digital plaltforms' casting head. Shreyas after noticing the fraud has now warned the digital platform to look into the matter and investigate accordingly.

Conman on Facebook cheats Hunsur woman of Rs 5.3L

A woman in Hunsur town was cheated of Rs 5.3 lakh by a conman, possibly a foreigner, who contacted her through Facebook. The accused, who identified himself as Nueman, offered to send her gifts from foreign countries after becoming a ‘friend’ on Facebook.
He forced her to deposit money in his account in a bank branch in New Delhi, claiming that the gifts he had sent had been seized by customs and if she did not pay to get it delivered, she could be arrested. Fearing arrest, she sent the money.

According to the district police’s Cybercrime, Economic offenses, and Narcotics (CEN) wing, they have registered an FIR against the accused
Nueman used to chat with the woman on WhatsApp and Facebook. Recently, he informed her that he would be sending her free gold and silver gifts as a mark of their friendship.

Last week, she got a call from Nueman saying the gifts he sent had been seized by the customs officials at the airport and she had to pay Rs 5.3 lakh to get them released. He warned that if she did not pay the money, the customs may arrest her. Fearing the arrest, she transferred the money to the bank account of the accused.
“We have launched an investigation. The account of the accused is in New Delhi. People must be careful while transferring money or becoming friends on social media,” said an offiicial of CEN.
“Jobs frauds, OTP-based cheating etc are on the rise. Awareness is key in this regard,” said the officer.

Woman loses Rs 2.8 lakh to conman

A woman fell into the trap of an unidentified conman and lost Rs2.80 lakh on the pretext of claiming the lottery prize won by her.
After realizing that she had been cheated, the victim lodged a complaint with cybercrime police station.

“The complainant got a call from an unidentified number on July 7 and she was informed that she has woman a bumper lottery. She was told that for claiming the prize she would have to deposit a fee,” a cybercrime police official said.
“The unidentified caller called the complainant from another number and sent her bank account details through WhatsApp, asking her to deposit Rs2.8 lakh. Subsequently, the woman deposited the money and waited for further details,” he added.

However, the woman did not get any call or message from the suspect. The complainant also tried to contact the suspect on both the numbers but was unable to get through. After waiting for few more days, the woman decided to lodge acomplaint with police.
“It is a common modus operandi used by criminals to cheat people. We are regularly organizing awareness programmes about cyber security in schools and colleges. Thousands of students have been informed about the importance of cyber security and how to deal with issues like phishing and cheating,” the official said.

Woman loses jewellery worth Rs 90,000 to conman in Mysuru

MYSURU: A woman lost her gold ornaments worth Rs 90,000 to a conman who pretended to be a cop.

In her complaint to the KR Nagar police, R B Gowramma, 50, a resident of Mirle village under KR town police, said the incident occurred near KR Nagar government hospital on Wednesday.

Gowramma said when she was walking near the hospital after getting down from the bus, a person, posing as a policeman, stopped her and asked her to keep her valuables safe as thieves were roaming in the area. He offered help in removing and wrapping up the jewellery.

Gowramma believed him and handed over her jewellery to wrap it up in a paper packet after which the man left the spot on a bike with another person.

When Gowramma uncovered the packet, she found a lime stone instead of her ornaments.

KR Nagar police launched an investigation. Gowramma said the conmen travelled towards Hassan.

A few months ago, such incidents were reported in Mysuru city. Conmen were targeting the elderly.

Cupid or conman? Decoding the online dating scam

Last week, 52-year-old Meenu Jain was robbed and murdered in her Delhi home. The suspect was someone she had met on desi dating app QuackQuack. Dinesh Dixit, a debt-ridden realtor, posed as a high-flying businessman to strike a friendship which gradually turned to ‘romance’. A police probe has revealed that Dixit’s modus operandi was preying on married women. As more people go online looking for sex, love and friendship, dating apps and social networking sites have become hunting grounds for conmen. Here are five kinds of dating scams to watch out for…
1 | Russian Biwi Con

The Russian Wives scam is a classic. A pretty young thing befriends an older man online. After chatting over a period of time, the “woman” shows an interest in coming to India to know more about Bollywood or Indian history, but says she can’t because of lack of funds. Altaf Halde, global business head of cyber security firm Network Intelligence, says that by this time, the man starts feeling sorry for her. “Then in a fit of generosity, he transfers a sum of money for the travel.” The transfers are requested through a service like Western Union rather than a bank account so that tracking the recipient becomes difficult. The next day, the man will get an image in his mailbox, showing the woman connecting with the man’s wife on a social media app, and a blackmail note threatening to tell all if the man doesn’t part with more money. Most people who are duped don’t even go to the police. Senior inspector of Pune’s cybercrime cell Radhika Phadke says that every week, they get at least one application from someone who has fallen victim to an online dating fraud. “But very few come forward to lodge an FIR.”

2 | Proposal turns extortion

This one targets widowed or single people looking for a second chance at companionship. Scammers usually pose as doctors or military personnel as that inspires trust, sometimes even introducing other “family members” to give their story credibility. As in the case of 44-year-old Hyderabad-based divorcee Haritha (name changed), who joined a matrimonial portal and met a ‘’doctor’’ online. They exchanged numbers. Before long, the chats became longer and more frequent. The doctor claimed to be living with his daughter in the UK and told Haritha that he’d lost his wife in a car crash. One day, he told her that he had booked tickets for India to meet her. “He told her that he wanted to meet her and her family to officially propose marriage,” says S Harinath, ACP cybercrime Rachakonda. Haritha later got a call from a woman from the customs department saying he was carrying a lot of cash and gifts with him, and had been taken into custody for money laundering. “The customs officer asked her to send money in phases to various account, to secure his release. She sent over Rs 5 lakh, but later realised she had been cheated when there was no call from the customs officers and the doctor she had been talking to for weeks,” says the ACP. The case was finally cracked when the man was arrested from Noida. Hyderabad alone reported 11 such cases of fraud in four months.


3 | Pretty woman is a man

This one involves a sex change or, at least, a virtual one. Last year, 29-year-old Bengaluru-based engineer Suman Reddy posed as a woman on a classifieds app called Locanto which is often used to pick up female escorts. By the time the Guntur police arrested him, Reddy had cheated over 500 people, making off with several lakhs. The excuses for asking for money ranged from medical emergencies and sudden travel plans to a credit card getting lost or stolen. He would always insist on a digital payment. Last June, a software engineer in Bengaluru was duped of Rs 60 lakh by a “woman” who struck a rapport and then asked for Rs 30,000 for her father’s treatment at a Kolkata hospital. The requests kept coming.

4 | I-have-your-sex-tape-scam

Cybersecurity company Kaspersky Lab says a common scam involves conmen who claim to be living abroad in Eastern Europe or Southeast Asia. After a courtship period, the scammer asks the victim to connect via webcam and “chat”. The fraudster’s webcam is mysteriously broken, but with a combination of flattery and persistence, he convinces his “partner” to partially disrobe or perform other intimate acts. The scammer then claims to have made a video recording and threatens to post it unless the victim sends money.

5 | Making Gay men pay

Besides lonely middle-aged men, widows and divorcees, romance scammers often target the queer community as they are more reluctant to go to the police. They are often lured on dates, drugged with a spiked drink and robbed of cash and jewellery. But sometimes, it’s worse. As in the case of Mumbai-based Ashish, who was on a work trip to Delhi last July when he met a match on a dating app. He decided to meet with his date in the middle of the afternoon near Connaught Place only to find another guy turn up. “The man said he was part of an escort service and demanded Rs 20,000. When I refused, he started abusing me,” Ashish says. The man was joined by two others who physically assaulted him and tried to snatch his chain and phone. Ashish kicked one of the gang members and ran for his life. A shaken Ashish told a few close friends about the incident after returning to Mumbai. “After I spoke about it, I realised that many people in the gay community had faced similar situations,” he says. Ishaan Sethi, who co-founded the Delta app to give the LGBTcommunity a safer way to date, says that though scams have reduced after the repeal of Section 377, cases of extortion and blackmail continue to exist. “Earlier people were scared of getting arrested. Now that fear is alleviated but there is still the fear of public shaming.”

How to spot the scammer

• If you are approached by someone on a social media app, experts suggest checking for poor English, like spelling and grammatical errors
• If there is a photo on the profile do a Google Reverse Image search. If it’s a scammer, you’ll probably find his or her photo in a stock image library
• Do not transfer money at any cost irrespective of the sob story
• If you’ve been chatting up a potential sweetheart for a while, and they keep putting off meeting in real life, it could be a red flag
• Don’t visit links sent to you by people you haven’t talked to for very long. Scammers try to get their target to click on links, usually leading to porn or webcam sites, and sometimes can even lead to malicious sites that download malware onto your computer
• If someone requests a webcam chat, be especially careful about your behaviour

TOP COMMENT

Please be extremely wary of those who you interact with online !Stay safe and be careful with the information you share!Sumita Kulkarni

Mistakes people make on dating sites

• One in three people are dating online
• People share information with others too easily. One in four admitted they share their full name publicly on their dating profile while one in ten have shared their home address
• One in ten have shared naked photos of themselves exposing them to risk
• Even though lying is one of the most hated aspects of online dating, 57% of online daters lie to each other, faking a range of attributes such as their names, marital status, location and appearance
• A 2017 online study by Kaspersky Lab interviewed 21,081 people aged over 16 from 32 countries

Owner Mansoor Khan arrested from Delhi airport, being questioned by ED

IMA ponzi scam: Owner Mansoor Khan arrested from Delhi airport, being questioned by ED

The SIT said that its sources in Dubai persuaded him to come back and submit himself before the law.

Mohammed Mansoor Khan, the owner of IMA jewels, has been arrested in New Delhi by the Enforcement Directorate and is being questioned by it, said a special investigation team here which is probing the alleged ponzi scam.Khan, who had fled to Dubai, flew back to India and was arrested on landing in Delhi, it said in a statement.

The SIT said that its sources in Dubai persuaded him to come back and submit himself before the law.

"Accordingly he travelled from Dubai to New Delhi (Flight AI 916) and landed at 01550 hours IST. SIT officers are in Delhi to secure and arrest the accused," it said.

 IMA ponzi scam case: IMA Founder Mansoor Khan is in Enforcement Directorate (ED) custody and is being questioned at ED office in Delhi

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A lookout circular was issued against him by both SIT and ED and he would be handed over according to the procedure, the SIT said.

Sources told PTI that he is being quizzed by ED officials in New Delhi and will later be sent to Bengaluru for a detailed probe by the SIT.

Khan will be produced in a court on Friday and will be taken to Bengaluru on transit remand.

More than one lakh people had invested in the IMA Jewels which started 17 companies. Khan invited people, mostly Muslims, to invest in five companies, said the SIT, adding that Rs 4,084 crore was invested in the company.He has to refund approximately Rs 1,400 crore to his investors, the SIT said.

Around one and half months ago, Khan had fled to Dubai leaving thousands of investors in lurch.

Khan had promised them that he would return to India and refund their money.

Based on thousands of complaints, the SIT registered a case against him and others. It has so far arrested 22 people, including Khan, 12 directors of the firm, deputy commissioner of Bengaluru urban district Vijay Shankar, assistant commissioner L C Nagaraj, a Bangalore Development Authority officer, a nominated corporator of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike and a village accountant.

Before fleeing he had accused Shivajinagar Congress MLA R Roshan Baig of taking Rs 400 crore and not returning it.

Baig categorically refuted the charge, terming it false and frivolous. The MLA who had rebelled against the party was suspended for anti-party activities.

Baig then joined the bandwagon of rebel MLAs who resigned.

The SIT had served him a notice to depose before it on July 15, but he sought time till July 26. The SIT then asked him to be present before it on July 19.

The day Baig was supposed to appear before SIT, he planned to fly to Mumbai by a special chartered plane but the SIT detained him and quizzed him extensively.

IMA Ponzi scam: MLA Roshan Baig fails to turn up before SIT

The MLA wanted to appear on July 25 but the SIT directed him to depose on July 19 instead, SIT said.

Former Karnataka minister and Congress MLA R Roshan Baig Monday did not turn up before the special investigation team probing the alleged IMA Jewels Ponzi scheme saying he had some urgent work.

The MLA wanted to appear on July 25 but the SIT directed him to depose on July 19 instead, SIT said.

"Regarding the appearance of MLA Roshan Baig, before the SIT, he has consented to appear before SIT on July 25. But due to the necessity of speeding up the investigation on the part of the SIT, a second notice is served to him to appear on July 19," the SIT said in a statement.

A former minister in the previous Siddaramaiah government, Baig landed in the IMA controversy after the company owner Mohammed Mansoor Khan alleged that Baig took Rs 400 crore from him but did not return it. The MLA had refuted the charges calling them baseless and frivolous.

Baig has been sulking for quite some time and had flayed party leaders Siddaramaiah and state president Dinesh Gundu Rao for the party's poor show in the Lok Sabha election. The party later suspended him for his "anti-party" activities.

At the height of the resignation drama in Karnataka, he joined the bandwagon of 16 MLAs who tendered their resignation from the assembly, pushing the ruling coalition to the verge of collapse.

Hours after his resignation on July 9, the SIT served him a notice asked him to appear on July 11 but the MLA sought time and said he would appear on Monday but did not turn up.

Meanwhile, Mohammed Mansoor Khan in a video message on YouTube said he would return to India "within 24 hours" to refund money to the investors.

He said he wanted to come early but due to health issues, he could not. He claimed he had high diabetes and blood pressure and that there were three blockages in his heart.

"By the grace of God, I will back to India within 24 hours. I have faith in the Indian judiciary," Khan said in the video.

He added that once he landed in India, he will hand over documents and details to the police department.

"We will try to get the money back from those who extorted from me and took a bribe," he said.

The Enforcement Directorate has filed a money laundering case against the IMA group of companies and Mohammed Mansoor Khan after reports emerged that he has gone underground fearing investments worth crores of about 40,000 investors have tanked.

Before he went missing, Mansoor Khan threatened to commit suicide saying that corruption in the state government, as well as the central government, pushed him to the wall.

The SIT has arrested 21 people so far, including the deputy commissioner of Bengaluru urban district and an assistant commissioner of Bengaluru North sub-division, who allegedly took bribe from Khan for covering up the case. A Muslim cleric is also among the arrested, the SIT said.