Dehradun police have arrested four members of an inter-State swindling gang on the charge of duping people in Dehradun and some other parts of the country from Shimla Bypass on Wednesday. The accused have been identified as Virendra Mohan Barar and Jitendra Gupta, natives of Delhi, Shakil, native of Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh and Nadim, resident of Haridwar.
Police recovered Rs 11 lakh in cash, forged company slips, electronic vat machine and a car used in committing the crimes from their possession. Ashwani Kukreti, resident of Premnagar, had registered a complaint at Premnagar police station and on its basis, police started investigation.
In his written complaint, Kukreti, a wholesaler of shoes based in Premnagar, had stated that he had met Nadim who informed him that he had an Eryx (a double- headed snake) with him, used for producing medicines to cure cancer whose price is Rs 5 crore. As per the complainant, Nadim had offered to sell such a reptile to him for Rs 20 lakh. Two days later, Kukreti had received a call from one Jitendra Gupta who identified himself as the manger of a company based in Delhi and stated that he would purchase Eryx from him for Rs 4 crore.
As Kukreti had contacted Nadim the latter had provided him with the double- headed snake at Nanda Ki Chowki area after being paid Rs 10 lakh by the complainant. Subsequently, a deal had been made with Gupta for the snake being sold for Rs 4 crore.
However, Gupta had asked for Rs 8 lakh from Kukreti to have the snake tested in the company’s lab to verify its efficacy as a cancer medicine. Soon after Kukreti had given Gupta the sum Gupta informed him that the snake having died during testing, the deal stood cancelled. Both Gupta and Nadim had refused to pay him back the money he had given them, the complaint ran. Realising that he had been duped, Kukreti had filed a complaint and acting on the compliant, a case udder sections-420/467/468/471/506/120b of IPC had been registered against the accused in Premnagar police station.
A police team comprising Premnagar police station in-charge Naresh Rathore and sub-inspectors Sunil Negi and Narendra Adhikari had been formed to investigate the case. Acting on a tip- off, the team members arrested the quartet from Shimla bypass.
While being grilled, the accused are said to have admitted their crime and said that they had duped around 60 people from several states like Rajasthan, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh and Harayana aside from Uttarakhand over the past few years.