A sessions court on Thursday denied bail to a 29-year-old Nerul resident, who was allegedly part of a group that conned a medical equipment seller who they contacted through Facebook and duped him of around Rs. 9 lakh.
The applicant Arup Choudhari’s advocate had told the court while seeking bail that he has been behind bars for a month now and does not have criminal antecedents.
The Santacruz police through Additional Public Prosecutor Ramesh Siroya had opposed the plea stating that the investigation is at a primary stage and there is apparent involvement of Choudhari.
As per the police complaint, Kartik Kapur, who deals in medical equipment, had posted on his Facebook account about surgical gloves he was selling. He had received a response the same day from one Edward Brown who claimed to be a sales manager for Zoological Welfare of Ghana. Kapur shared his mobile number with Brown who asked for a medical liquid - Patonic MQ, which was available cheaper in India than in Ghana, he said. Brown asked Kapur to contact one Deepak Chandra of Dinesh Enterprises for the liquid. Kapur then contacted Chandra as advised by Brown and deposited Rs. 2.85 lakh in the former’s account. The next day, Kapur got a call from Brown who requested for another product and Kapur made another transaction of Rs. 6.28 lakh to Chandra’s account the following day for the new purchase. In a few days, Chandra delivered the liquid to Kapur and told him that someone from Ghana’s Zoological welfare department will contact him to approve the medicine. When no one contacted him, Kapur got suspicious and lodged a cheating complaint with the police.
The police managed to nab members of the con-group when someone called Kiran contacted Kapur after over two weeks and said that someone will come with a liquid and he has to pay Rs. 44 lakh for it. The police laid and trap and caught the person who arrived with the parcel. This person led the police to the applicant Choudhari. Investigation revealed that two Nigerian nationals were also part of the con-group.
The court while rejecting Choudhari’s bail plea said that the offence is committed in India with the help of persons residing outside the country and that the investigation is at a primary stage. Additional Sessions Judge RM Sadrani also noted the nature of the offence and the technicalities involved in the investigation while denying bail.
