Two members of a criminal gang involved in duping people on the pretext of selling US Dollars to them on cheap rates, have been arrested, police said on Wednesday.
The accused have been identified as Mohammad Yunus (28) and Imran Khan (32), both residents of West Bengal, they said.
The police swung into action and made the arrests on a complaint by a Delhi resident, Ravinder, who told police on December 10 that a few days ago three to four persons came in his contact and offered him to buy US Dollar on cheap rates.
They initially sold one 20 US dollar-note to the complainant for Rs 500 and also took his mobile number. The complainant later exchanged the note for Rs 1,300, a senior police officer said.
Thereafter, the accused contacted him and convinced him to buy more dollars at similar rates. They offered him to buy total 1,146 notes of US Dollars, police said.
The complaint somehow arranged Rs 5 lakh and on December 1, he reached a bus stand on Ring Road near ITO Flyover, where the accused persons showed a parcel purportedly containing US Dollars, police said.
When the complaint paid him Rs five lakh, two or three of their accomplices came there, posing them as Delhi Police’s Crime Branch officials.
The complainant took the parcel and left the spot in a haste.
However, when he checked the parcel, he found that it had only newspapers cuttings in the shape of US dollars notes with one note of USD 20 fixed on the top of the pack, the officer said.
"During the investigation, the CCTV footage of the spot and nearby areas was collected. Secret information was received that two of the accused persons would come near Sarai Kale Khan bus stand on Tuesday evening.
"Thereafter, Yunus and Khan were arrested and cash Rs 1.70 lakh, one bundle of newspapers with 20 US dollar and one scooter used in crime were recovered," Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central) Sanjay Bhatia said.
Interrogation revealed that the accused along with their other accomplices were residing in a rented accommodation in Taimoor Nagar Extension.
They cut newspapers in the shape of US dollars and when the victim gets convinced, they call him at desolate locations convenient to them with some of their accomplices already hiding there, the DCP said.
At the time of delivery, these accomplices would raid the spot posing themselves as Crime Branch officials so that the victim would get nervous and leave the place in haste without checking the packet purportedly containing dollars, police added.
