Delhi: Man held for cheating taxi driver of Rs 1 lakh

A 47-year-old former security guard was arrested for allegedly cheating a taxi driver of Rs one lakh on the pretext of currency exchange in southeast Delhi's New Friends Colony area, police said on Thursday.

The accused, identified as Asim Mandal, was arrested on the instance of the dentist in Okhla who had recently treated him, they said.

Police said one Sandeep lodged a complaint that he met a person who showed him a US dollar note and told him that he had several bundles of the currency and wanted to exchange them.

The deal was settled at Rs one lakh in exchange for 5,000 USD.

On July 17, the accused called Sandeep at Taimoor Nagar where two people, including a woman gave him a bag claiming it had USD 5,000 inside and took the Rs one lakh from him, a senior police officer said.

But upon opening the bag, the complainant found papers cut to the shape of currency notes, police said.

During investigation, police analysed CCTV footage of Taimoor Nagar area and found the movement of two people, including the woman, they said.

Police analysed the call details record of the suspects and zeroed in on a mobile number. The phone number was of a dentist named Ravi who runs his clinic in Okhla industrial area, Deputy Commission of Police (southeast) R P Meena.

When we showed the picture of the accused to Ravi, he recognised him and told us that he had visited him for the treatment, police said.

Thereafter, the accused was arrested on Thursday from his house in Khoda Colony, Ghaziabad, police said.

Interrogation revealed that Mandal hails from West Bengal. He came to Delhi seven years ago and worked as a security guard in CR Park. Later, he left his job and joined a local gang of criminals, the DCP said.

The gang used to target people by showing them genuine US dollar notes and claiming to have found a bag full of the foreign currency which they were ready to exchange at a very low rate, Meena said.

Police are trying to nab the other gang members, they said.