Mumbai: Matunga police have arrested a schoolmate of Railway Minister Piyush Goyal for cheating a man of Rs 1.50 lakh by luring him a business contract through central government’s scheme. The accused, Jyotikumar Agarwal, is suspected to have duped others using the same modus operandi.
According to police sources, Agarwal had approached the complainant, Manish Patel, an environment consultant during a school reunion. Agarwal during this conversation claimed of having good ties with Goyal and boasted of getting any work getting done through his influence.
On this pretext, Agarwal told Patel that he can get him business contracts worth Rs 50-80 crore, under the Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation (SATAT) scheme and claimed that he had forwarded the contract to Goyal’s office.
In October, 2018, Agarwal also took Rs 1.50 lakh from Patel’s office to give a ‘Diwali’ gift to Goyal. Moreover, the accused also made a fake email address in the name of Railway Minister Piyush Goyal to send an email to himself and later forward it to Patel to show authenticity.
However, when Patel asked a common friend of his to enquire with the Railway Minister’s office, he learnt that Agarwal was cheating him and approached police. Agarwal was apprehended on Sunday and was booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code for cheating (section 420) and impersonation.
