mumbai

Updated: Nov 30, 2016 16:54 IST

A senior citizen from south Mumbai was cheated of Rs 57.50 lakh while trying to exchange old currency. The 63-year-old registered a case with the Byculla police station and a special team has been formed to investigate the case.

The businessman, Siraj Dalal, was cheated by one Meeraj Ali alias Danny and three of his associates. Dalal, in his statement to the police, said, “I wanted to buy a new house for which I wanted to change my old Rs500 and Rs1,000 notes. So I met Ali through one of my relative’s employees, Oan Ali, who accompanied me along with my son to Mustafa Bazar for the meeting on November 12.”

Ali arrived for the meeting with three more people in a car, Dalal said. Ali allegedly told Dalal one was his relative, Jonny, while the other person, Sufian, was his friend and the third person was their driver.

The four said they wouldn’t be able to exchange the currency, but would instead help him buy a new house using the old notes, Dalal said. They demanded he pay the money on that day itself, as demanded by a second party. “They told us to keep the money in their car and asked us to go and sit in another car parked a few metres ahead,” Dalal said.

After the complainant kept the money in the first car, he began walking towards the other car. But the car left before he could make it, Dalal said. When he turned around, the other car also took a U-Turn and fled from the spot, he said.

Dalal said he tried contacting the four of them for the next two days, but their mobile phones remained switched off.

The complainant said, “We even went to Ali’s residence in south Mumbai, but there was no one at home, which is when we approached the police.”

Senior police inspector Avinash Shingte from the Byculla police station confirmed the incident and said investigations were in progress.

A case has been registered under sections 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

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