Cops Raid Kharghar Flat, Find 17 Phones Worth Total Rs 8 Lakh



Navi Mumbai: A 49-year-old woman and a youth, who posed as mother and son, have been arrested for allegedly cheating several e-tailer firms, including Snapdeal, of expensive iPhones.

"After Snapdeal lodged a complaint against the 'mother-son' duo, crime branch sleuths raided their Kharghar flat and seized 17 iPhones worth a total Rs 8.16 lakh. We have urged other e-tailers to come forward and register complaints against them," said Navi Mumbai deputy commissioner of Police (crime) Dilip Sawant.

Crime branch central unit officials said that Dombivli resident Anita Shirish Kulkarni (49) and Naupada resident Mobin Yusuf Mahafule (24) had rented a flat in Kharghar's Eden Garden Sector-5 using forged documents using the names Anita and Siddharth Chabra. Explaining the modus operandi, the police said that the duo would book iPhones online with cash-on-delivery option. The police said that when the parcel would arrive at their rented residence, Kulkarni would engage the delivery boy in a conversation, while the youth would take the parcel inside, swap it with a similar box containing a dummy iPhone model, and return the "parcel" to the delivery boy complaining that it's a defective piece.

"Kulkarni and Mahafule have several similar cheating cases registered against them in Thane, Pune and Ahmedabad where they used the same modus operandi," said Sawant.

"The duo had purchased three iPhones from Snapdeal with cash-on-delivery option. When the package was delivered to their rented apartment in Kharghar, they swapped the delivered parcel with a similar box containing a dummy models and returned it to the delivery boy claiming they were defective pieces," said Navi Mumbai police commissioner Prabhat Ranjan.

"Sensing something was amiss, Snapdeal lodged a complaint with the crime branch department. An investigation revealed that Kulkarni and Mahafule had used fake identities to rent the flat as mother and son and had cheated other e-tailers using the same modus operandi." The Kharghar police have booked them for cheating and forgery under IPC sections 420, 465,468, 469, 471 and 34.

