Navi Mumbai Police book 5 for defrauding Iranian date trader of Rs 4.3 crore

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Navi Mumbai Police have charged five persons for allegedly cheating an Iranian date trader of nearly Rs 4.3 crore, an official said on Friday. The accused persons, including proprietors of two trading firms, had procured dates from the complainant but never made his payment, the official told news agency PTI.

Per the PTI report, the trader said that he had dispatched 23 containers with dates from the Bandra Abbas port in Iran to two Mumbai-based traders in 2020. Reportedly, the accused, after having received the consignment of dates, falsified papers to make it look like the company's associate in Dubai had supplied the fruits.

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According to the report, the money for the dates, estimated to be around Rs 4.36 crore, was handed to a Dubai-based corporation rather than an Iranian seller.

The Navi Mumbai Police's Economic Offences Wing conducted a preliminary investigation after receiving the complaint, and a cheating case was filed against the accused at the APMC police station in Navi Mumbai on Thursday, according to the PTI report.

According to the police, on Wednesday, a 63-year-old woman from Navi Mumbai lost Rs 80 lakh as a result of falling for a scam carried out by con artists posing as representatives of a global courier service and government agencies.

Cyber police officers report that on March 29, a caller posing as a representative of an international shipping company called the victim, a former employee of a power company residing in Vashi. The caller informed her that there had been a package delivered in her name that was allegedly filled with illegal items. The victim then received fictitious letters via a Skype account threatening legal action from the Reserve Bank of India, the Enforcement Directorate, and the Finance Ministry, according to the PTI report.

To help her avoid being arrested and having her property verified, the scammers allegedly coerced the woman into depositing Rs 80 lakh into many bank accounts.

Reportedly, the victim discovered the fraud on Tuesday night and reported it to the police. The report also stated that an FIR was filed against anonymous people following relevant provisions of the Information Technology Act and the Indian Penal Code. Authorities per the PTI report have started looking for the accused to prosecute them.