Two held for duping Delhi trader of over Rs 57L through fake promotional scheme

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Two men have been arrested for allegedly duping a trader of Rs 57.50 lakhs after luring him to buy large quantities of cement through a fake promotional scheme, police said on Tuesday.

Two accused -- Chandan Kumar Bhuiyan (25) and Gopal (25) -- have been nabbed from their native place in Bihar's Nalanda, police said, adding that one of their associate is absconding.

The police also claimed to have recovered Rs 1.01 crore in cash along with mobile phones, SIM cards, ATM cards and several documents.

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On September 22 last year, a cement trader of south Delhi received a promotional message on his mobile which stated that on purchase of 2,000 or more bags of Ultra-Tech cement, he would get a preferential rate of Rs 300 per bag, police said.

The trader called the number two-three days later and call was received by a man who introduced himself as Shankar Purohit, senior sales manager of Ultra-Tech Cement Limited, they said.

Following their conversation that day, Purohit made various Whatsapp calls to the trader later and induced him to purchase large quantities of the cement under the promotional scheme, police said.

During the calls, the accused shared his bank account details with the trader. But when the trader informed that he did not have a GST number, Purohit told him that the cement will only be delivered once he gets the number, officials said.

The trader then applied for a GST number. In the meantime, the accused kept asking the trader to make some advance payment to avail the offer, police said.

Special Commissioner of Police (Crime) Ravindra Singh Yadav said the

complainant found the offer irresistible and paid Rs 12 lakhs. Sometime around Diwali last year, Purohit again offered a price of Rs 270 on purchase of 10,000 cement bags and asked the complainant to deposit Rs 27 lakhs.

The accused kept making such offers and in total extracted Rs 57.50 lakhs from the the trader, he said.

"On November 22, when the complainant received a GST number and contacted Purohit, the accused informed him that he was down with Covid and later switched off his phone.

"Sensing something fishy, the complainant contacted the head office of UltraTech Cement Ltd. and learnt that no person with the name of Purohit worked in their company," the senior police officer said.

Based on technical inputs and local enquiries, raids were conducted in Bihar's Nawada and Nalanda following which two of his helpers were arrested, he said.

Bhuiyan is the main conspirator and used to collect data from Google, select the targets, sent them messages and made the calls to lure them to deposit the money into their 'hired' bank accounts by offering them irresistible offers, police said.

Gopal arranged SIM cards, bank accounts etc and withdrew money after Bhuiyan induced the target and convince him to deposit amount into his account, they said.

Efforts are on to nab Purohit who is absconding, police added.

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