23-yr-old who had cheated 15-yr-old of Rs 1.95 lakh in September was held yesterday, after cops contacted him through his Facebook profile, posing as a girl who wanted to exchange her defunct currency
Pravin Prajapati, the accused
The demonetisation drive has helped cops net a wanted scamster. A 23-year-old who had cheated a 15-year-old of Rs 1.95 lakh in September was held yesterday, after cops contacted him through his Facebook profile, posing as a girl who wanted to exchange her defunct currency. The arrested accused is Pravin Prajapati who goes by the alias Sunny and ‘Rocky Editzz’ on Facebook, and has several active fake profiles.
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Cops said he had first befriended the minor on FB, after which they started dating each other. On their first meeting, Prajapati had convinced the complainant to give him cash and gold ornaments to the tune of R1.95 lakh. After the girl obliged to his request, he fled with everything.
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The Andheri police had booked Prajapati under Section 354 (d) (Stalking), 420 (Cheating) of the IPC and Section 12 of POCSO Act and had begun a search for him.
“We made all kinds of efforts to arrest Sunny. The team created a fake FB profile to lure him and even called him on his cell phone but he refused to meet,” said Vinayak Deshmukh, DCP, Zone X.
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After the PM’s announcement, the detection officers of Andheri police station hit on another idea to establish contact with Prajapati. They befriended him on FB with a fake name and offered him 50% commission in exchange of the defunct currency notes. Prajapati fell for the plum offer and rushed to meet his ‘friend’ at the spot they had decided, only to land in the hands of waiting cops.
Big spender
During investigations, it was found that Sunny has failed Std VIII. He was used to a lavish lifestyle and would splurge on parties. Recently, he had splurged some R90,000 for the birthday party of one of his friends. “There are many females on his profile and we suspect that he might have cheated other girls too,” Deshmukh added. Prajapati will be produced in court tomorrow.
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