Mumbai conman makes woman travel 980 km only to get her phone robbed

Illustration/ Ravi Jadhav

Natasha (name changed) now knows the pitfalls of trusting strangers from WhatsApp groups. The 24-year-old event management professional travelled 980 km from Bengaluru to Mumbai last week only to be conned and almost lose her cellphone worth about R18,000. Last week, she made the acquaintance of a man, Kishore Shinde, on a WhatsApp group.

The Bengaluru resident and Kishore Shinde exchange chats after making each other's acquaintance on WhatsApp

He claimed to be freelance event management professional and offered her a job opportunity with a prominent company in Mumbai.
Reluctant to pass up such a good opportunity, she set off for Mumbai. After she reached the city on July 13, Shinde, 24, asked her to meet him at a restaurant near Andheri railway station. During the meeting, he claimed that the company's office was located in Santacruz and offered to take her there in a local train for an interview.

As soon as they boarded a train at Andheri, Shinde asked her for her cellphone to make "an urgent call", claiming that his phone's battery had died. Suspecting nothing amiss, she passed it to him.

The two meet at a restaurant in Andheri. He offers to take her to the company office in Santacruz

"But when the train started pulling out of the station, he jumped out. He even had the audacity to wave her goodbye," said a police official. Natasha raised an alarm, and commuters on the platform nabbed him. She got off at the next station, travelled back to Andheri, and found that Shinde was still in commuters' custody.

After they board a train, he takes her phone to make a call, but jumps out when train begins to move. Illustration/ Ravi Jadhav

He was then handed over to the Andheri Government Railway Police (GRP), who recorded Natasha's complaint and lodged an FIR. The police later found that Shinde had lied about his identity; his forename is Nitin. He has, however, worked as a freelancer for event management companies and is a resident of Nalasopara. As of now, the police haven't found any record of past offences committed by him.

Prasad Pandhare, senior inspector of Andheri GRP, said, "Shinde was arrested on charges of cheating and theft. He was produced in court and sent to judicial custody."