Thane man held for duping many of crores with ‘money shower’ con

January 01, 2020

MUMBAI: A man was arrested recently for duping people of several crores by promising them a “shower of money” that would bring returns 50 times the investment if they performed a special pooja and black magic.

A crime branch unit 9 team led by inspector Mahesh Desai arrested Nishwitkumar Raviraj Shetty (36), a resident of Mira Road in Thane, under the IPC sections for cheating, forgery, breach of trust and under the Maharashtra Black Magic Act. A large quantity of toy banknotes in denominations of Rs 500 and Rs 2,000, mobile phones, fake letters of the RBI and US federal bank were seized from his possession.

The police froze his bank accounts and searched two aides, including one called “Guruji”. “Shetty, who is the ring leader, himself had got conned of Rs 20 lakh in 2015 in a similar way by a Gujarat gang, after which in a bid to recover the losses he too adopted the same modus operandi,” police inspector Sanjeev Gawde said.

The police first learnt about the scam after a person called Venu Pillai became poorer by Rs 1.12 crore. In 2018, Pillai, a resident of Versova in Andheri, got to know Shetty through a common friend.

“The modus operandi of Shetty was to look out for an easy target. He would simply take the victim to his rented flat in Mira Road and under a dim light would show a room filled with currency toy notes in denominations of Rs 500 and 2,000 from a distance. He had placed several threads around the area and would tell the victim that nobody could cross those threads without a certain pooja which would then give them a shower of money,” DCP Akbar Pathan said.

Shetty told Pillai he would have to get Rs 11 lakh for a spiritual guru from Madhya Pradesh. He later extorted more from Pillai by showing a fake RBI letter of assurance that “approved” deposition of Rs 63,000 crore in his account. Pillai mortgaged his flat and sold his wife’s gold ornaments. The police said they learnt Shetty had duped a dozen people.

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Source : timesofindia.indiatimes.com