India News | One Held for Cheating People by Luring Them to Buy Mobile Phones at Discounted Rates
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. A 31-year-old man was arrested for allegedly cheating people on the pretext of offering them expensive mobile phones for sale at discounted rates through online advertisements, police said on Thursday.
New Delhi, Aug 18 (PTI) A 31-year-old man was arrested for allegedly cheating people on the pretext of offering them expensive mobile phones for sale at discounted rates through online advertisements, police said on Thursday.
The accused, Anurag Katiyar, hails from Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh, they said. Katiyar used to introduce himself as a government official in order to win the trust of his prospective targets, police said.
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He would avail loans to buy expensive phones and then sell it to his targets without telling them about the due EMIs.
The accused started duping people in 2020 and have cheated more than 50 in the last two years, police added.
On July 19, police received a complaint in which it was alleged that the victim had come across an advertisement on an online market place where a person was selling a mobile phone at a discounted price.
He got in touch with the seller and on May 29, he received the mobile phone from him in-person at Adarsh Nagar Metro Station for Rs 72,000. The accused introduced himself as a UP Police sub-inspector, a senior police officer said.
On August 14, his mobile phone was blocked by the company as the loan EMI was not cleared. The complainant realised that the mobile was purchased on EMI and the dues was unpaid. The seller did not inform the buyer that the mobile phone was purchased on EMI, Deputy Commissioner of Police (northwest) Usha Rangnani said.
During investigation, police laid a trap and nabbed Katiyar, the DCP said.
He disclosed that he had cheated people from different states. After becoming insolvent in 2020, he left from Chhattisgarh and started purchasing expensive mobile phones on EMI basis, first in Mathura and later in Delhi, police said.
Katariya used to post advertisements of these expensive mobile phones on the online market places at a discounted rate. When customers contacted him, he used to introduce himself as a government official to establish the authenticity of his offer, Rangnani said.
He never told the prospective buyers that he had availed loans to purchase the mobile phones. After sometime, due to non-payment of the regular EMIs, the fiancing company used to block the mobile phones as a part of their pre-approved policy, police said.
(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)