Make-up artiste among three held for duping forex traders of $60,000 | Mumbai news

A three-member gang, including a Bollywood make-up artiste, was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly cheating two forex traders of $60,000 on the pretext of exchanging foreign currency notes with Indian notes, police said.

“Their modus operandi was to pose as rich people and call forex traders to suites in five-star hotels which they used to book. Once they collected the foreign notes, they would cook up some excuse such as taking a private phone call and flee,” said police inspector Laxmikant Salunkhe from unit 8 of the crime branch.

The accused have been identified as Majid Abdul Malik Khan alias Munnu, 44, who lives near Juhu Church and claimed to be a make-up artiste, Mayank Sharma alias Laddu, a resident of Delhi, and Akash Agrawal, 19, a Dombivali resident.

The first FIR under section 420 (cheating and dishonesty) and section 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code was registered in Airport police station in the last week of January. The complainant was allegedly cheated of $35,000 by the trio.

The second FIR, under similar sections, was registered on February 28, based on a complaint filed by Paresh Parmar at Vakola police station.

According to the police, Parmar has an office in Vile Parle East. He was introduced by a common friend to the main accused, Khan, who identified himself as Krishnan. Khan spoke to Parmar many times and told him that his Bollywood team was going on a foreign trip for shootings, and they required US dollars. The duo then decided to meet in a five- star hotel in Santacruz on February 27 where they planned for the swap of notes. Parmar went there with his wife, a police officer said.

The couple first met a person (one of the accused) in the lobby, who introduced himself to be an assistant make-up artiste working with Krishnan. He then took them to Krishnan’s room on the fourth floor of the hotel where Parmar handed over $25,000 that he had brought in a bag, said deputy commissioner of police Vishal Thakur from the crime branch.

“Once Khan got the money, he left the room on the pretext of talking to his accountant. He also told Parmar that his accountant would be coming in some time and would hand over the Indian rupees of equal value and photocopies of documents like passport and Aadhaar,” Thakur said.

Parmar waited in the room for several minutes before he tried to call Khan in vain. Parmar then tried to search for Khan in the lobby and other areas of the hotel but could not find him. Hotel staff confirmed that the guest occupying the said room had checked out. The room fare, he was told, had been paid in advance, Thakur said.

The complainant then approached the Vakola police. During investigation, the crime branch learnt that the accused had duped one more forex trader of $35,000.

“We zeroed in on the accused using CCTV footage of the hotel. Based on other technical evidence we arrested the trio on Tuesday in Mumbai,” Salunkhe said.