Conmen cheat businessman of Rs 20.5 lakh over seeds that ‘cure HIV’
The Vile Parle police has arrested four alleged bluffmasters including two Nigerians who duped a Gujarati businessman of Rs 20.5 lakh by posing as representatives of a medicine manufacturing company from England.
The accused are Rahudeep Danji Boricha (33) alias Nitin Agrawal, Shamgovind Haribhan Tripathi (32) alias Pandey and Nigerian nationals Tony Abuna Mujordima (40) alias Micheal Dean and Omon Osakuye (33) alias Manka Pergeorge.
Manka sent an e-mail to the complainant on January 12 this year posing as a pharmacist and a company’s purchasing manager from England. This company has a subsidiary company called Salt Heat Care (SHC) UK Ltd. They said they got the complainant’s e-mail id from an international directory.
Manka said to the complainant that they needed a trustworthy person to do business with. He claimed that his company’s regional director is working on a medicine named Liniya that allegedly cures HIV.
The accused claimed that they needed seeds available in India to manufacture the medicine. Manka told the complainant that the seeds are available for $460 per pack in India and he can sell this to the company for $2,430 dollars. He also convinced the complainant that he can keep 80 per cent as commission and hand over the rest to Manka. The complainant readily agreed but said he had no idea about the particular seed that they required. Manka then gave him Agrawal’s contact details who would supply the seeds to him.
Agrawal on January 25 met the complainant at a posh hotel in Vile parle where he and co-accused Pandey came and charged Rs 31,000 for one packet of the said seeds. Manka then sent Micheal, who posed as the SHC’s representative and on January 27 Micheal and the complainant met at the Taj hotel.
Micheal took out a bottle put the seeds in it and shook it. He then confirmed the seeds are acceptable and asked complainant to buy 24 more packets worth Rs 7.39 lakh. Like this they made him buy seeds worth Rs 20.5 lakh from Agrawal. After the purchase, Micheal discontinued all communication with the complainant, after which he approached the police.
On Monday, the complainant was asked to lure them saying he wanted to buy more seeds. The two accused Agrawal and Pandey reached Vile Parle and were nabbed by the police. The Nigerians were trapped later from a Vashi mall. They were produced before a court on charges of criminal breach of trust and cheating and sent to police custody. The IT Act will be added, sources from the police said.
