Mumbai: The Mumbai Airport Police have warned flyers against a youth who poses as a student of a Nagpur technology institute and cheats passengers outside the domestic terminal by seeking urgent financial help for a flight ticket. At least three to four people are believed to have been duped similarly, police said. The Airport police on April 18 registered an FIR against an unidentified individual for allegedly cheating passengers at the airport.
The police said that the latest victim is Akshay Gawade (31), a sales manager from Pune, who was conned on March 21 after stepping out of the arrival gate of Mumbai Domestic Airport. An FIR was registered on Saturday based on a complaint Gawade filed on March 29, after he discovered he had been cheated.
According to the FIR, Gawade had just arrived from Kolkata following an official trip. At around 12:30 pm, a young man identifying himself as Nilaboyina Srigiridhara Aditya approached him in a distressed state. The youth claimed to be a student of VNIT College, Nagpur, and produced a college ID card, a photo of which Gawade took on his mobile phone.
“He told me his ticket to Hyderabad was lost and that he needed to go there urgently. He asked for financial help and promised to return the money very soon,” Gawade stated in his complaint.
Trusting the student’s identity, Gawade agreed to help. The conman then displayed a scanner on his mobile phone. Gawade scanned the code and transferred ₹16,000 via Google Pay. The youth also shared a mobile number.
Two days later, when Gawade messaged him on WhatsApp asking about the return of the money, the conman gave evasive replies. Upon being followed up on persistently, he blocked Gawade’s number. Suspicious, Gawade checked his Google Pay history and found the UPI ID registered as darivemula3@ptyes.
Gawade then emailed VNIT College, Nagpur, attaching a photo of the ID card. The college replied that no student by that name was enrolled. It also disclosed that it had received similar inquiries from at least three other people who had been cheated in the same manner.
“I became convinced that the said person has financially defrauded me,” Gawade said in the FIR.
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A police officer confirmed that the conman falsely claimed to have lost his ticket and needed money for a new one. “We have sought bank details to identify the account holder and are also gathering CCTV footage from the airport premises to track the accused,” the officer said.
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