Man poses as customer, 'mortgages' two minor boys for tomatoes in Cuttack

After buying 2 kg tomatoes, the man said he had forgotten the money in his bike. He asked the two boys, whom he had earlier hired, to wait at the shop till he returned with the money.

Cuttack: Two minor boys were kept as 'mortgage' by a fraudster who came to buy 10 kg tomatoes and later decamped with 2 kg of the vegetable at Chhatra Bazaar in Cuttack on Saturday.

The incident occurred at a time tomatoes are being sold above Rs 100 per kg in most markets across the country. The man, posing as customer had hired the two boys to shift a washing machine to another place. He brought the boys along with him to the market and asked them to sit at a vegetable shop. He purchased 2 kg tomatoes and left without paying the vegetable seller. He said that he had forgotten his money in his vehicle and was going back to bring it while asking the boys to wait for him there.

The boys kept sitting at the shop and when the man did not return after two hours, the vegetable seller became suspicious. He asked the duo about the whereabouts of the man but they failed to provide any answer. "We came with the man from Bhubaneshwar. He had promised to pay us Rs 300 for shifting his washing machine elsewhere. We were asked to wait at this shop as he said that he was going to get his money. We don't know anything about more about him," one of the boys said.

The angry vegetable seller said that the man had said that boys would sit at the shop till he returned with the money. "He has fled with 2 kg tomatoes. The boys can't be let off till I get my money back," the shop keeper added.