DNA

Mumbai, Nov 29: If you find anyone offering mobile phones at dirt cheap rate and the delivery is at the city airport, beware!

Jimit Dalal, an estate agent, had a close shave recently. Dalal had placed an order for 40 mobile phones for a price of Rs 7.2 lakh.

But he was lucky as the Sahar police managed to catch the culprits and recover a major portion of his money. The lure of buying cheap mobile phones led Jimit Dalal, 24, to walk into the trap laid by Amrutanshu Gupta and Ritesh Hazare. The duo allegedly promised Dalal the latest gizmos at a 30 per cent discount.

On October 12, Dalal logged on to www.kgg.com as he wanted to sell his mobile phone and enlisted it. He came across an advertisement which offered 30 per cent discount on bulk buys of mobile phones. Dalal immediately jumped at the offer and emailed to technoexpressysk@yahoo.com.

A person named Mahendra Verma alias Gupta allegedly called him and said that he can get Dalal mobiles from the custom department of Mumbai airport at fantastic discounts.  

Dalal asked Verma to get him some samples and on October 18, Verma got him two Nokia phone instruments N93 and N95 for Rs30,000 and delivered it to him at Sahar airport. 

Investigating officer SR Bhandwale from Sahar police station, “Verma had actually bought them from Vile Parle at the original rate but sold them at a lesser price to gain Dalal’s confidence.”

Dalal followed up with an order for 40 mobile handsets. On October 29, Verma alias Gupta allegedly asked Dalal to come to terminal 2C of Sahar airport with Rs7.2 lakhs to pick up his order in the afternoon. Dalal obliged.

“Verma took the money and asked him to wait while he got the consignment cleared from the customs,” says senior police inspector CK Chavan, Sahar police station.

“He went upstairs and vanished from there.  After waiting for two hours Dalal called him. But Verma said that the customs commissioner had an urgent meeting and the consignment cannot be cleared on that day.  He asked Dalal to come the next day,” he adds.

When Dalal found that there was no trace of Verma the following day, he approached the police. During the investigation, the Sahar police discovered that Gupta and Hajare operated from a cyber café at Thane.

On November 3, the cops arrested Gupta and Hazare and recovered Rs6.25 lakh from them. They were charged them under sections 420(cheating) and 34(common intention) of the Indian Penal Code and have been remanded in judicial custody. 

“The mobile phones seized by us are sold through consumer federations,” says G Ravindranath, joint commissioner, customs.