Several traders were duped to the tune of lakhs of rupees by the owner of a grocery shop under Gautam Nagar police station area on Friday.
According to the Gautam Nagar police, the victim Arif Ali lodged a complaint regarding duping of money by Shadab Ali. In the complaint victim has claimed that the accused used to run a shop Sunrise Enterprises and used to sell the goods at cheap rates to other traders to gain confidence. He offered the traders who used to buy goods from him to invest in his business and he would provide a return of 10 per cent on every investment.
The locals and traders were assured that the accused would not default on payment and they gave him huge sums of money but the accused went missing few days ago and is still missing.
SHO Gautam Nagar police Suryakant Awasthi said that accused was a wholesale dealer of grocery and confectionery goods. He was in the business for the past three years and around two years ago he offered the traders to invest in his business for good returns. After he gained confidence several traders provided him with huge sums and he went missing with money collected from the traders in the past 5-6 months.
The identity proofs of the accused are of Bhopal but he hails from some other city which has made it difficult to trace his whereabouts. In the initial investigation it was found that the accused hails from lucknow but there is nothing concrete regarding which would be said about the accused. The investigation has been started, he added.
Exact number of victims and amount duped would be provided but at the time of complaint around 5-6 victims were present. The police have registered a case under section 420 of the IPC and have started further investigation.