The accused had previously been booked for murder and assault on a police officer.
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The Sakinaka police have handcuffed a 41-year-old man from Surat, Gujarat for cheating several fish sellers in Mumbai, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh out of lakhs of rupees by pretending to be a fish exporter. The police arrested him on Sunday after receiving information about the entire affairs of this swindler. The accused has been identified as Imran Mohammad Hussain Qadri.
Complainant Aakash Kamble is a fish trader who has his business in the Sakinaka police jurisdiction. In 2022, while looking for a dealer to supply large quantities of fish, he found the number of a person named Mayur Shah on Google. By contacting this number, he ordered fish and made a payment of ₹3.13 lakh to Shah. However, the complainant neither received the goods nor got his money back.
As soon as Kamble realised that he had been cheated, he filed a cheating complaint at the Sakinaka police station.
‘The accused had created a very professional-looking Facebook page, Google Business Profile, and a WhatsApp account through which he communicated with traders. While negotiating with fish merchants, sent them appropriate pictures and prices of the types of fish they required. He conducted all these transactions and discussions under the name of Mayur Shah without disclosing his real name in this entire business profile,’ Sakinaka police said.
Once the deal was struck, he asked the trader to pay in advance so that he could ship their goods. After the transaction was completed, the accused would tell the buyer that the delivery truck had a punctured tire or other glitches, delaying the delivery of the order. ‘After a few days of maneuvering for various reasons, he switched off his number and changed all the details such as his business name and number on Facebook and Google,’ police officials said.
Pursuant to the crime, the investigation team of the Sakinaka police station searched the accounts of fish traders and exporters in Surat, Maharashtra in connection with the crime. Got in touch with the accused and arrested him from Surat on Sunday.
The police investigation further revealed that the accused had earlier cases of murder and assault on a policeman in Surat.
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