Ujjain: Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Ujjain to give a green signal to the expansion work of the first phase of the world-famous Mahakaleshwar Jyotirlinga temple of Baba Mahakal in Madhya Pradesh's Ujjain, fraudsters have made an unsuccessful bid to dupe local traders in the name of the PM visit.
The PM is likely to visit Ujjain on June 15 and 16. However, even before his arrival, the fraudsters have become active and are calling traders disguising as the priests of the temple demanding money online by calling from the same mobile number. Two such cases surfaced on 26 April. A fraudster called grocery trader Prabhat Bansal, who runs 'Pranjal Traders', from the number 8889881212 disguising as Ashish Pujari, the temple priest.
He told Bansal that a large quantity of laddu prasad material is to be purchased in the state for PM Modi's visit for which Bansal needed to provide the required items through online bidding. The thugs also asked the businessman for the papers of his firm, which he provided, and also asked for Rs 85,000 as the 'earnest money for the online bid.
Bansal got suspicious and paid only Rs 1 even as he took up the matter with the temple management committee. The temple committee asked the trader to avoid any such calls. The same day Tushar Maheshwari, an AC vendor from Indore, received a similar call from the fraudsters asking him to provide 142 ACs for the temple.
The temple committee asked the AC trader to avoid any such calls. Taking the matter seriously, Ganesh Kumar Dhakad, the administrator of the temple committee, while providing the above number in a letter to the Mahakaleshwar police station, has sought strict action against the accused. Also, in the letter, it has been alleged by the administrator that Tej Kumar Mandiwal of Nivasi Patel Nagar in Ujjain has been cheated for over Rs 50,000.
