2 held for duping traders in Thane, Mumbai

Two persons have been arrested for allegedly duping electrical equipment distributors to the tune of several lakh rupees, Thane police said Saturday.

Deputy Commissioner of Police 9Crime) Deepak Deoraj told reporters Puranchand Jain (50) and Bhumaram Kumhar (45) would get phone numbers of distributors from trade and industrial directories and then proceed to cheat them by placing fraudulent orders for electrical items.

"They would ask the distributor to supply equipment to a particular shop. They would tell the shop owner to keep the goods for sometime. The duo would call the distributor for payment at a particular place but would vanish after taking delivery of the items from the shop. They used new mobile numbers for all such transactions," Deoraj said.

Police got on their trail after a complaint was lodged by a distributor, duped of LED bulbs worth Rs 55,000, in August last year.

Police said Jain and Kumhar are believed to have at least a dozen such cases against their names in Thane and suburbs like Andheri, Borivali and Dahisar in neighbouring Mumbai.

They were arrested on March 26 and remanded in police custody till April 2, the DCP said.