Man held for duping shopkeepers by calling in woman's voice

Police have arrested a man from Nalasopara in Maharashtra's Palghar district for allegedly cheating several shopkeepers of thousands of rupees by making phone calls in a woman's voice to seek change for a Rs 2,000 currency note, an official said on Saturday.

The accused, Manish Ambekar (40), was arrested on Friday, spokesperson of Mira Bhayandar and Vasai-Virar police commissionerate Tukaram Tatkar said. Several offences had been registered against the accused for duping merchants and shopkeepers at different places in Thane, Palghar, Mumbai, Nashik and Pune districts, he said.

"The accused used to target general stores, medical shops, jewellers and wholesale grain merchants. He would call them in a woman's voice and tell them that she was calling from a hospital or a house located close to their shop," he said.

"The accused would then order certain things from their shops and say that they should send change for a Rs 2,000 currency note. He would then wait at the entrance of buildings and when the delivery man arrived, he used to tell that he was there on behalf of the 'caller woman'," Tatkar added.

"He would then take the currency notes of smaller denomination from the delivery man saying he would get the Rs 2,000 note from the woman. However, after collecting money, he would disappear from the scene," he added.

Recently, a similar incident had happened in Nalasopara and an offence of cheating was registered. During the probe, police got a tip-off that the accused involved in that offence was coming to his residence in Nalasopara. Accordingly, a trap was laid and he was nabbed. "During the raid, police recovered Rs 1.60 lakh cash from the accused," he said.