Mumbai Crime: Cabbie distracts man with bright light, dupes him of Rs 1,500

A screen grab of footage from a CCTV camera installed at Rajesh Ramani’s housing society at Maratha Colony in Dahisar East

The police are on the lookout for a taxi driver who duped a Dahisar resident by distracting him with a bright blue light when he was paying his fare, causing a loss of Rs 1,500. The entire incident was captured by a closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera in the complainant's housing society.

The victim, Rajesh Ramani, 32, a resident of Jay Jalaram Apartments at Maratha Colony in Dahisar East, got into the taxi with his wife and children outside Dadar railway station in the wee hours of Wednesday. They were returning from Hyderabad. Ramani told mid-day, "At 4.45 am, I hailed a taxi outside Dadar station and the driver told me he would charge me R1,500 flat. Around 5.39 am, we reached our society and the driver helped unload our luggage."

According to the CCTV camera footage, it was quite dark when the family arrived home. When Ramani got back in the cab after the vehicle was unloaded - at the driver's behest - the latter, who was in the front, switched on the light. Ramani then handed the driver three Rs 500 notes from his wallet. The latter then allegedly dropped the fare and quickly switched the Rs 500 notes to those of Rs 100.

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Ramani said, "The driver told me that I gave him Rs 300, but I had given him Rs 1,500. He took advantage of the blue light and swapped the notes. I told him that I had given him R500 notes but he insisted they were Rs 100 notes. He even switched off the blue light and showed me three Rs 100 notes. I gave up, handed him Rs 1,500 and went home with my wife and kids. A few minutes later, I realised that I had only Rs 500 notes in my wallet."

Ramani then approached the society's security guard and checked the society's CCTV camera footage, which confirmed his suspicions. He immediately rushed to the Dahisar police station and made a complaint. The police recorded his statement and examined the footage.

Senior inspector Pravin Patil of the Dahisar police station said, "Due to the darkness, the driver's face and the taxi number were not properly captured. We have not registered an FIR yet but we have started investigating the matter and are looking for the taxi and driver."

Senior inspector Smita Dhakne of Dadar GRP said, "A few days back, we received a similar complaint. The complainant had got into a cab at Dadar station and the driver also cheated the passenger after switching on a blue light. We traced the taxi driver and brought him in front of the complainant. The taxi driver apologised to the complainant and later refused to register an FIR. We released the cabbie with a warning. Most people don't register complaints after getting their money back."

5.39
Time on Wednesday morning when complainant reached home