A 34-year-old man from Mira Road with a history of multiple arrests related to cheating and fraud, has recently been implicated in the theft of a camera and other equipment worth Rs5.90 lakh from a Mumbai-based photographer.
This incident has shed light on accused Ferin H Patel's criminal activities, further highlighting his involvement in various cheating cases. The exposure of his actions gained traction after an Instagram reel was shared, alerting the public to his deceptive activities. A case has been registered with the Surat police.
On January 5, Patel approached the complainant, Kedar Tank, who is a city-based photographer, seeking a photoshoot for Makar Sankranti for his family. He asked the complainant, and his partner, to reach Surat railway station on January 13. Ferin said he had arranged a hotel room and reached Surat station to pick them up.
The distressing incident
Ferin took the two to the hotel room where they halted for some time, later while the three were having dinner, Ferin received a call from his family, he said, and left claiming personal matters.
The two photographers waited for Ferin to return, as he had promised, but since he didn’t return, they went back to their hotel to find that they couldn’t open the door of the room. When they managed to open the door with the help of the hotel staff, half of their luggage was missing. In the CCTV camera of the hotel stairs and lobby, Ferin was seen running away with all the pieces of luggage. Given the location of the crime was in Surat, they approached the police and registered a complaint.
Six years ago, in 2018, Juhu police arrested Ferin for cheating students and youth on the pretext of getting them admissions and jobs. After his arrest, he confessed his passion towards high-end bikes and other luxury items – which made him drop out of his engineering course, and he started by making money by duping people. When he was arrested, he had Rs13 lakh worth of items on him, like jackets, sunglasses, shoes, etc. Several students from Pune had come forward to provide their statements about how Ferin took money from them assuring admissions at Mumbai-based management colleges/institutes. Following his arrest, he spent three years in jail.
Then 2022, in December, Ferin moved to Vile Parle and started working as a manager for a management company. He allegedly withdrew Rs42 lakh from the society’s bank account. On the record, he said the money was to pay vendors when it was done using fraudulent methods for fraud purposes. The society authority then approached the BKC police who arrested Ferin in Delhi after an exhaustive search.
In the Surat police case, the police have declared Ferin absconding. Tank’s friend Pratik Shejwal who made an Instagram reel about this incident, says he received many messages from Ferin’s victim about how the latter cheated them on the pretext of providing admissions and jobs. These victims are spread across the state, but many of them are still unreported.
