Two held for making fake villa bookings for NYE in Lonavla, Goa and Alibaug

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The cyber police arrested two people for allegedly cheating many people on pretext of booking hotels, villas and resorts for the occasion of New Year and Christmas in Lonavla, Goa and Alibaug. Police said the accused created a fake website and posted photos of villas, resorts and bungalows and took online bookings from customers. The Mumbai police has registered around 12 different FIRs with different police stations.

The accused have been identified as brothers Aakash Rupkumar Jadhwani and Avinash Rupkumar Jadhwani. The police also recovered two mobile phones and one debit card from them, which was used to withdraw money. The police suspect that the accused have cheated even more people, and have requested citizens to come forward and lodge a complaint.

According to the officials, the accused created an Instagram account with the name of @luxury.villas.lonavala in early December. One complainant called on the given number on December 6 and booked a villa for Rs 72,000 for December 31, and transferred the same amount. The accused told the victim that they had booked a bungalow in Lonavla and also received an email confirmation. The accused introduced himself as Hardik and the bungalow was identified as Mavi Infinity Villa at Lonavla.

After the booking, the victim tried contacting the villa caretaker, but his number was unreachable. Later, when she contacted to the villa owner, she realised that she had been cheated by the accused. The cyber police managed to trace them through their debit card number.