Pune Crime: Scalpers cheat four people on OLX for over Rs 2 lakhs

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Two separate cases have been recorded by Vimantlal and Sahakar Nagar police stations on Monday against unidentified touts who cheated four people for over Rs 2 lakh. The accused promised to sell them automobiles and gadgets through advertisements on OLX.

Three victims were duped by a man who claimed to be a CISF jawan who worked at the Pune International Airport.

Manas Srivastava, who is a student in the city was scouting OLX to buy a scooter when he came across an ad of a white Honda Activa for sale.

Srivastava told Mumbai Mirror, "I rang up the number on the ad to be told that he was Vikram Waghmare, a CISF jawan. He first asked for Rs 3,000 and then Rs 2,000 via Paytm, claiming he wanted to initiate the paperwork process at the local RTO. I obliged as he was an army guy and had even shared his ID card."

He added, "He asked me to pay the rest of the money for the scooter. I could hear take-off noise of the aeroplane and his conversation with some seniors in the background. I believed him and transferred rest of the money and waited outside for hours as he claimed he will come out after his working hours."

Srivastava finally approached the CISF officials at the airport asking for Waghmare but he informed that a number of other people had also approached him for the same person but he didn't work there. All of them were directed to the Vimantal police station.

Srivastava met two other victims at the police station, Madhav Falafale and Narayanji Sharma who were promised an iPhone and a Hero Honda bike. Both of them were cheated for Rs 5,000.

On a similar incident, Amol Aher in Sahakar Nagar police station registered a case after being duped of over Rs 1.5 lakh which he had paid for a second-hand Mercedes Benz C-class.

Senior police inspector Anil Shelwale from Sahakar police station said, "He saw the white car on an online site named CarTrade.com. Aher then called up the provided number and a woman who claimed to be an NRI picked up the call. She made him transfer the token amount to her accomplice's bank account. The money was withdrawn and the number was switched off."

The accused have been identified as Virginia Kotwal, her accomplice Vinod Jangid and Kalpesh Patil, to whose account the money had been deposited.

The accused have been booked under Sec 420 for cheating, 406 for criminal breach of the Indian Penal Code and under relevant sections of the IT Act 2000.

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