Woman among two arrested for duping Chhattisgarh man of Rs 70,000 on pretext of 'currency exchange'

Police said that the accused hailing from Delhi were arrested following a complaint by a cement trader based in Dhamtari. In his complaint, the victim said that the accused approached him at his shop and introduced themselves as Saudi Arabia nationals. They took Rs 70000 from him and fled from the spot, he said.

Dhamtari: Police have arrested a man and a woman from Delhi for allegedly duping a cement trader in Chhattisgarh's Dhamtari on the pretext of exchanging dollars for Indian rupees in September this year, an official said. A police official said that the accused Ismail Ali and Katima Ali were arrested by a special team of Dhamtari Police on the basis of CCTV footages and technical and material evidence collected by the police.

Police have recovered 12 foreign currencies, SUV worth Rs 10 lakh and Rs 30,000 cash from the accused. Taking further action, the police presented both of them in the court from where they were sent to jail, an official said. The arrests came after the victim Shravan Sahu, resident of village Mohandi under Magarlod police station limits, approached the police station with a complaint on 20 September.

In his complaint, Sahu said that the accused had arrived at his Chhad cement shop in a long black car and introduced themselves as citizens of Saudi Arabia. The accused told Sahu that they were on a visit to India and needed to exchange the dollars for Indian rupees, Sahu said. He said that the accused offered him Rs 2000 in exchange for a dollar note.

Falling into the trap, Sahu took out Rs 70,000 kept in the house and gave it to them. After taking the money, the accused left telling Sahu that they will return shortly, but did not. Sahu after realizing that he was cheated, reached the police station. On the complaint of the victim, the police registered a case under section 420, 34 of the IPC against the accused.

Police station in-charge Magarlod and cyber cell team started searching for the unknown accused. The CCTVs installed at the incident site and nearby were searched. Along with this, CCTV footage installed in Dhamtari, Kanker, Kondagaon, Jagdalpur, Dantewada was closely watched. A police official said that they examined more than 500 CCTV footages and got a clue about the accused being seen around Raipur.

The police finally nabbed the accused in the area. Both the accused confessed to cheating Shravan Sahu, police said. It is learnt that the duo is a serial criminal and used to go around and cheat people on the pretext of currency exchange.