The Aarey police on Monday arrested a man for duping a retired Air India employee of R60 lakh on the pretext of investing in two shops in a mall. The accused allegedly influenced the investor by showing him photographs of himself with ministers and politicians.

The accused has been identified as Dharmendra Thakur. The other accused include his wife and two agents. According to police, a Mahim resident, 63-year-old Pramod Chandrakant Kaloowala, invested all the money which he got after retirement from Air India in 2014, on the insistence of a colleague, E Murlidharan, in a project allegedly to be constructed by Thakur. He was told that Thakur was constructing a shopping mall at Royal Palms in Aarey colony and it would be completed in 18 months. Kaloowala was allegedly told that if he invested in shops in the mall and paid the amount immediately, he would get a monthly rent from each of them of R10,000. The deal was finalised at R60 lakh and Kaloowala gave R51,000 as a token amount on the spot. He later paid the rest.