Conman would talk his victims into parting with cash at banks

A 36-year-old conman, who targeted several bank customers in Oshiwara, was arrested on Friday following a month-long investigation and scrutiny of CCTV footage from the bank. The accused, Abbas Ukaani, is a history sheeter who was out on bail and has over 20 cases pending against him.

Abbas Ukaani was caught on the CCTV footage of a bank in Lokhandwala while speaking to the contact of Rajesh Patil, the complainant, over the phone

Of these, three cases had been lodged in Oshiwara. For eight years, Ukaani has been duping employees who come to banks to deposit huge amounts of cash on behalf of their firms.

Modus operandi
Ukaani would visit well-known banks and look for targets from among those who would come to deposit money. He would sneak up to the victim and note the name of the company on the deposit slip.u00a0Noting the name of the firm, Ukaani would then tell the victim that he too was in the bank to deposit money in the account of the same firm. He would ask the victim to call his contact in the firm and speak with familiarity, secretly cutting the call.

Having convinced the employee that they were colleagues of the same firm, he would request his victim to fetch his cash bag from another man standing nearby, offering to hold on to his cash and wait in line. The second the victim would turn his back to Ukaani, he would run off with the money. "On a tip-off, we arrested Abbas Ukaani from his Nalasopara residence. In the latest incident, he stole Rs 7.5 lakh from Rajesh Patil, an employee of an entertainment company, who went to a bank in Lokhandwala to deposit money," said Assistant Inspector (API) Ravindra Patil from Oshiwara police station.

According to the police, Ukaani has a polished personality and strikes a conversation easily. Rajesh had gone to a bank at Lokhanwala. There, Ukaani assured him of knowing his employer very well. After taking Rajesh into confidence, he decamped with the money and spent all of it on bar girls. "Ukaani spent all of the money on various bar girls. So we couldn't recover the money from him," Patil added.

Breakthrough
The case was cracked with the help of CCTV footage from the bank and a month-long investigation. Ukaani is from Surat and a resident of Nalasopara. He will remain in police custody till tomorrow.

Rs 7.5L
The amount that Ukaani ran away with in his latest heist at a bank