NEW DELHI: Two alleged cheats, who duped businessmen of lakhs of rupees in the name of getting their credit card limits enhanced, have been arrested by the West Delhi police. The prime accused, who owned a Mitsubishi Lancer and lived in a palatial house in Noida, was involved in cheating for the past many years.

The police said two businessmen of Punjabi Bagh, Shyam Sunder and Rakesh Luthra, had lodged a complaint with the police that a person had cheated them of Rs. 3 lakhs and Rs. 1 lakhs respectively, in the name of getting their credit card limits enhanced by five to 10 times.

A team, under the supervision of the Assistant Commissioner of Police (Punjabi Bagh), J.S. Deswal, conducted investigations in the case and arrested Abhishek Tyagi, a resident of Meerut, and Syed Kafil Ahmed, a resident of Ghaziabad.

During interrogation, Abhishek told the police that he would approach rich businessmen with the credit card proposals. He would ask them to have a new account opened in one of the private banks - such as HDFC, ABN Amro and ICICI -- and make an initial deposit of at least Rs. 1 lakh to have a huge withdrawal limit. When the businessmen agreed to the proposals, Abhishek would ask them to sign an account payee cheque in the name of the bank concerned.

Later, he would add his own name on the cheque. Thus, the entire amount would be deposited in his account which he withdrew later. Abhishek had opened 12 accounts in various banks under fictitious names and addresses.

In order to impress the businessmen, Abhishek rented offices at prime places in the Capital like Connaught Place, Greater Kailash, Rajpur Road and also Noida. He then hired a team of about half-a-dozen young men and women who approached businessmen over the phone as tele-marketing personnel.

After managing to get the cheque, Abhishek would "disappear". First, he would tell the businessmen that the documents were being processed. After a few days, he used to tell them that he had suffered some losses and would be able to repay the amount as post-dated cheques. These cheques would invariable bounce and when the businessmen went looking for him, he would close the office and leave the place.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail