Delhi: 2 held for duping taxi driver

Two men have been arrested for allegedly duping a taxi driver by promising to give him US dollars at lower exchange rates in southeast Delhi's Sarita Vihar area, police said on Thursday.The accused have been identified as Rubel (25) and Yeash Khan (23), both residents of Batla House in Jamia Nagar.

On December 22 last year, a taxi driver named Pramod Kumar Sharma lodged a complaint alleging that on December 21, while he was sitting in his car at a mall in Saket, a man approached him and introduced himself as Ravi, police said.

He showed Sharma 20 US dollars of same denomination and told him that he had 1,100 similar notes.

He said he needed the money for his sister's marriage and was ready to give all of it in exchange of Rs 3 lakh.

He also gave his mobile number, a senior police officer said.

On December 22, the taxi driver along with his brother Vinod Sharma arrived near Jamia Cooperative Bank in Sarita Vihar with Rs 3 lakh.Around 2.30 pm, Ravi arrived with a polythene bag along with his two associates. Giving the bag to Pramod, Ravi told him that the dollars were in it. He took Rs 3 lakh and told Pramod that he should leave quickly as the police might come there, the officer said.

However, when Pramod checked the bag, he found newspaper cuttings in it.

He rushed back to the spot where he had exchanged the money but found no one there.

He also tried calling on the mobile number given by the accused but that was also found to be switched off, police said.

Police received information on Wednesday that two men, who cheated the complainant, will come near a sports complex in Sarita Vihar. A trap was laid and the accused were apprehended,Deputy Commissioner of Police (southeast) R P Meena said.

During interrogation, the accused revealed the names of their associates -- Bilon and Ravi.

The leader of the gang was Bilon who used to bring the dollars, the revealed.

After duping people, half of the total money was taken by Bilon and the other half was divided equally among the three, the DCP said.

One scooter, 16 mobile phones and a sim car used by them was recovered from their possession, police said, adding that probe is underway to nab the other accused

(IMAGE CREDITS:PTI)