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Fake Custom officer lands behind bars
The Malkjagiri Special Operations Team (SOT) along with local police on Thursday nabbed an Interstate offender identified as Soumen Banerjee (43) of Kolkata on charges of cheating people by posing as a customs officer.
Hyderabad: The Malkjagiri Special Operations Team (SOT) along with local police on Thursday nabbed an Interstate offender identified as Soumen Banerjee (43) of Kolkata on charges of cheating people by posing as a customs officer.
The police seized Rs 1 lakh net cash, mobile phone and fake Custom officer identity card, Aadhaar cards, Voter ID cards, stamps from the possession of the accused.
According to Rachakonda Police Commissioner Mahesh M Bhagwat, the accused collected more than Rs 5 crore by luring the public to provide them gold coins and 30 per cent interest on their investments.
Accused Soumen Banerjee in 2013, left his native village along with his family after a fraud and came to Chengicherla village at Medipally and introduced himself as customs officer, working at Vishakhapatnam Port.
He informed the local residents that during raids they seized gold biscuits from the passengers which he can provide them at 50 per cent lower rate if they pay the money in advance to get gold coins. Believing him people started investing money for purchasing gold biscuits for lesser price.
Initially he provided them gold coins to gain confidence of the public and collected crores of rupees. Later, the accused also established grocery firms at three places in and around Hyderabad with an intention to cheat the banks for obtaining loans.
He took bank loans from private banks and purchased two villas, two cars and three two wheelers. He asked public to invest money in his business firms, for which he will pay them 30 per cent interest and initially he paid said interest to the investors.
Further to gain confidence of the public he used to arrange lavish parties at his house extending invitations to all his investors. He also arranged tours, excursions for his investors on a large scale by arranging air tickets, luxurious rooms and other expenses.
After knowing all this, people started investing lakhs of rupees and so far, he collected around Rs 5 crore from the public and was rotating the money among investors.
However, on January 31, 2017 when he absconded from the place by switching off all his mobile phones people approached the Medipally police. The police registered a case under sections 420, 406 IPC.
