Mumbai gang conning people with job offers held in Vadodara

VADODARA: The local crime branch (LCB) of Vadodara rural police on Saturday busted a Mumbai-based gang that used to cheat people from different states by promising them jobs or membership of sexual services.
LCB sleuths cracked down on the gang while probing the complaint of Nagesh Ghughardare, a resident of Bhayli. Ghughardare lost over Rs 1 crore as he got trapped in their offer of a job with a monthly salary of Rs 1.4 lakh.
The seven persons who were arrested have been identified as Selva Santosh Natesan, Rakesh Jadhav, Sandeep alias Sandy Sinha, Ramakant alias Babu Vishwakarma, Jameel Khan, his wife Nilofer and father-in-law Sajjad Baig. Three others – Bhushan Kamble, Vaibhav Bhovad and Shriram Gupta – are absconding.
Ghughardare had transferred the money in different amounts to accounts of Nilofer, Baig and Kamble in nine banks. While probing the accounts, the transactions that were taking place in them and their owners, police found that Nilofer, Baig and Kamble were just a face to the entire scam and the kingpin were Natesan, Jadhav and Sinha.
The trio had taken their bank accounts and mobile numbers on rent and used to pay them Rs 40,000 every month for it.
“The money used to be transferred from one account to another and further on, so it took a while to zero down the accused,” said superintendent of police Dr Sudhir Desai. Later based on the mobile phone locations, the accused were brought to Vadodara for questioning during which they admitted to their crime and gave details of their entire racket.
Desai added that when the accused were brought for questioning, three of them tested positive for coronavirus and even recovered.
Police have found out that a similar criminal case has been registered at Tamil Nadu’s Tirunelveli as well. The gang had cheated the victim of Rs 17 lakh in that case. The gang has conned people in Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra too. Of the Rs 1 crore lost by Ghughardare, cops have recovered Rs 19 lakh and are searching for three other accused.
As many as 18 sim cards, 17 mobile phones, 28 debit-cum-ATM cards, several passbooks and cheque books have been recovered from them.