In the case of a couple being duped of $25,000 in the pretext of currency exchange at Grand Hyatt Hotel last month, the crime branch has arrested three persons from Mumbai airport. The FIR in the case was registered at Vakola police station, following which the crime branch stepped in.
Details of scam
The complainant couple runs a foreign exchange business and was invited to the hotel on February 26 by an acquaintance, who introduced a person named Srikrishnan, purportedly engaged in the business of films. To make the scenario look convincing, Srikrishnan, lodged on the hotel’s fourth floor, said a film starring Akshay Kumar was being shot in the lobby.
The businessman was asked to bring $25,000 for exchange to the fourth floor alone and his wife was requested to wait in the lobby. In Srikrishnan’s room, the businessman was asked to leave the money in a diary, which the accused walked away with while talking on the phone.
The arrested persons have been identified as Majid Khan alias Mannu, 44, Mayank Sharma alias Laddu, 22, and Akash Aggarwal alias Kabir, 19. An FIR has been registered against the arrested accused under sections 420(cheating ) and 34(acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the IPC.
At the airport from where they were arrested, the three men had come to carry out a similar fraud for which a separate case has been registered.
