Rajkot: The Gir Somnath police have apprehended a 40-year-old serial fraudster who duped small vehicle operators across Gujarat by posing as a bank employee. The suspect, identified as Jaykumar Dudhat, a resident of Amreli, confessed to orchestrating around 82 similar fraud cases across various cities and towns in the state.According to police officials, Dudhat adopted professional banking attire and mannerisms to win the trust of rickshaw and tempo drivers. He would hire vehicles under the pretext of official branch visits, travel to another town, and then claim that his wallet was left at home or his phone/banking server was down. He would either borrow cash directly from the driver or have passersby scan QR codes to collect cash, promising to repay the full amount along with the fare from his branch manager. Once the driver was directed to park, Dudhat would switch off his mobile phone and flee.The latest incident occurred when Dudhat hired a rickshaw from K K Mori Circle in Veraval, claiming he worked at a nationalized bank and needed to collect bank files from Junagadh. Upon reaching Junagadh, he took Rs 6,000 in cash from the driver under the guise of technical payment issues, asked him to wait near Kalva Chowk, and absconded.Following an FIR registered at Veraval City Police Station, surveillance teams tracked CCTV footage and technical analysis to identify and arrest the suspect.Police recovered Rs 7,500 in cash, four mobile phones worth Rs 30,000, a diary, a 140-page notebook, and a black bag.Dudhat carries prior criminal records registered at Ahmedabad’s Navrangpura, Satellite, and Bapunagar stations, Surat’s Athwalines station, and Rajkot’s Gandhigram station.During interrogation, the accused confessed to 82 offences, including 11 in Rajkot, 10 in Surat, 9 in Ahmedabad, six in Junagadh, five each in Veraval and Morbi, four each in Gondal, Keshod and Jetpur and several people he duped with the same MO in Jamnagar, Botad, Vadodara, Porbandar, Mahuva, Kodinar, Talala, Rajula, Khambhalika Dhasa and other small towns.
