India News | Mumbai: 23-year-old Man Held for Duping Holidayers on Pretext of Online Booking of Villas, Bungalows

Mumbai, Aug 30 (PTI) The Mumbai police have arrested a 23-year-old man for allegedly duping holidayers on the pretext of online booking of villas and bungalows, an official said on Wednesday.

Akash Wadhwani, a resident of the eastern suburb of Ghatkopar, was taken into custody from a hotel in Juhu on Monday. He would often stay put in luxury hotels to evade arrest, the official said. He faces nearly 20 such cases, said the official.

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Wadhwani's arrest came on a complaint filed last week by an employee of a private firm located in the business hub of Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC).

The complainant told the police that she was cheated of Rs 90,000 after she tried to make an online booking for a villa at Alibaug for a vacation.

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According to the complainant, she came across a website ‘vistarastays.com' when she was searching online for villas and bungalows at Alibaug for a vacation.

After she contacted the website, the woman was asked to pay Rs 90,000 to book a villa in the coastal town, the official said citing her complaint.

However, closer to the booking date, the person she was in touch with became unreachable, the official said.

Sub-inspector Rajesh Garad from BKC police station said, “With the help of technical evidence, we nabbed Wadhwani from a hotel in Juhu. He created a fake website and cheated many people. He has been named in nearly 20 such cases.”

Wadhwani has been booked under Section 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code and the IT Act, the official added.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)