Mumbai: Police warned flyers that a youth, claiming to be a student from a Nagpur Technology Institute, moved around the airport premises and conned people on the false pretext of seeking monetary help to buy a flight ticket to rush back to college or to another destination as he had lost his ticket and was short of money. Police asked flyers not to fall prey to the conman and to alert the local police station if they came across such a person seeking monetary help. At least three to four people were duped in a similar way by the same conman outside the airport.The latest victim was a sales manager, Akshay Gawade (31), from Pune, who was conned after he stepped out of the arrival gate at Mumbai Domestic Airport Arrival on March 21. An FIR was registered on Saturday on a complaint that Gawade mailed on March 29 after he found out that he was conned by a person who identified himself as Nilaboyina Srigiridhara Aditya. “The team is gathering details of the person through the CCTV footage from the airport premise where Gawade was duped to identify the whereabouts,” said a police officer of the Airport police station.Gawade, employed in a Pune firm and staying with his family in Pune, got down at Mumbai Airport after flying from Kolkata on March 21 after an official trip. In the complaint, Gawade said: “At 12.30 pm I stepped out of the arrival gate at Mumbai Domestic Airport when a youth introduced himself as Nilaboyina Srigiridhara Aditya approached me upset and worried. He claimed himself a student of VNIT College in Nagpur and showed me his College ID card. At that time, I took a photo of the said ID card on my mobile. The said person further told me that his ticket to Hyderabad was lost and he needed to go to Hyderabad urgently, so he needed financial help.”According to the FIR, the conman pleaded with Gawade saying, “Please help me,” and said that he would return the money taken from Gawade very soon. “I thought this person was a student and he needed help. I trusted him and agreed to give him money. Then he showed me a scanner on his mobile phone. I scanned the said scanner and sent him Rs16,000 via Google Pay. After that, he gave me his mobile number. Two days later, I messaged him on his WhatsApp and inquired about the money, but he said he would give the money but did not,” Gawade said in the FIR.When Gawade continuously followed the conman, he blocked his number, making Gawade suspicious. He checked the details with the Nagpur college about the conman’s antecedents. “When Gawade checked the entry of the money sent to the said person through his Google Pay history, he found out that the UPI ID of the said person was darivemula3@ptyes. This raised complete suspicion about the said person. Therefore, to get information about whether the said person is actually a student of VNIT College or not, Gawade mailed the college inquiring for details and also sent a photo of the accused ID card taken on his mobile phone,” said a police officer.After Gawade received an email reply from VNIT College Nagpur, he mailed a complaint to the Airport police station on March 29 after learning he was duped. “The college replied, that no person by such a name is studying in their college and that they had received inquiries about the said person from at least three people earlier who were conned in similar way. Therefore, I became convinced that the said person has financially defrauded me,” Gawade’s FIR further stated.A police officer said Gawade helped the conman who falsely stated that he had lost his flight ticket and needed financial help to get a new ticket. “We have sought details from the bank to get details of the account holder to which the money was credited which will help us to track the accused,” said the officer. MSID:: 130369846 413 |
