The Bandra police after a long search of 10 months has managed to trace and arrested a 27-year-old youth for allegedly cheating a female senior citizen, settled in another country, of Rs 46.5 lakh. He had promised her two flats in Goregaon area of Mumbai’s northern suburbs and even made forged documents to win her trust.
The arrested accused Avez Ansari got in touch with the complainant Zubeidabai Karachiwala, who is settled in Denmark, through a relative. Ansari told her he was the ‘chief editor’ of 24 Prime news, an online news-portal, and had good contacts in the real estate industry. The news portal existed in 2014 but had shut down, said police sources.
Ms Karachiwala has a relative who lives in Bandra but does not have her own house, as she lives in Denmark. She trusted Ansari as he was known to one of her relatives. She sent him money through MoneyGram, a global money transfer service. Ansari then prepared a forged sale deed with a forged address.
After Ms Karachiwala learnt that she has been duped, through her relative in Bandra, she approached the Bandra police station and filed an FIR in February this year. An FIR has been registered under section 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating), 465 (forgery), 468 (forgery for cheating), 471 (Using as genuine a forged), 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code.
During the probe, an official from the Bandra police went to the given address in Goregaon and found that there was no such building where the flats were promised. The police tried hard to trace Ansari but were unsuccessful for 10 months.
Later, based on technical evidence, the Bandra police managed to arrest Ansari Friday night from Andheri. He was produced before a magistrate’s court on Saturday and remanded in police custody till December 15. Police sub inspector Anandrao Ghadge is investigating the case.
