Man arrested for cheating over 2,000 people in tourist scam

Agencies
June 24, 2017

New Delhi, Jun 24: Delhi Police have arrested a 40- year-old man for allegedly cheating more than 2,000 people from all over India of crores on the pretext of providing luxurious holiday tour packages in five-star hotels. The accused, Raman Kapoor, is wanted in several cases of cheating in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat.arrest

He was arrested on the intervening night of June 19 and 20 outside Kalinga Hotel, south Tukaganj in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Madhur Verma.

Kapoor had opened a firm in the name of 'Sun Star – The Club' and 'Goodluck Hotels Pvt Ltd'. He used to send his employees to busy marketplaces and petrol pumps with coupons of their company. They would ask visitors to these places to fill up these forms. They would tell visitors that if their names come up in a lucky draw, they would be invited for free dinner with family in a five-star hotel in the city. Later, they used to call the victims to a hotel with family for dinner and his employees used to lure them by showing features and facilities provided by the club.

After the customers would be convinced, they would be charged between Rs one to 1.5 lakh for different types of membership in the company by showing different grade hotels, said the officer. After paying the amount to the accused, the customers, however, would not be able to avail the perks of the membership they had taken. Police had received a complaint from Manoj Kumar, a resident of Patel Garden, Uttam Nagar that he had been cheated to the tune of Rs 1.12 lakh.

The company representatives cheated the complainant on the pretext of providing holiday packages for 12 nights per year in five-star hotels with air-tickets for 20 years after membership. They claimed that Sunstar company has tie-ups with various five-star properties located at prime tourist locations in India and abroad like JW Marriott, Le Meridien, ITC Welcome, Leela Ambience Hotel and others, said the DCP.

The accused also told him that he can discontinue membership in the tenth or twentieth year and he will get back the entire membership amount. They also offered a refund of Rs 2,000 for each holiday to those who did not avail the offers. However, when Kumar tried to avail the holiday offers, he did not get any response from the company, said the officer.

A Crime Branch team conducted several raids in Delhi, Gujarat, Mumbai, UP and Madhya Pradesh in search of the accused persons since they had duped several people in these states with the same modus operandi, he added. Kapoor is a hotel management graduate from IHM, Ahmedabad. He worked with Club Mahindra Holidays for nine years but after a dispute with the company, he left. In 2016, he launched his business of holiday tour packages in which around 2,000 members have joined till date.

He employed people who had earlier worked with various holiday companies and were well-experienced in the field. Kapoor, along with his wife and other associates are also wanted in eight other cases of cheating registered in different police stations in Delhi, Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, and Surat in Gujarat.

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Agencies
June 7,2020

Behrampur, Jun 7: A migrant labourer spent two days in jungle after allegedly being denied entry to a quarantine centre and his village in Behrampur.

According to a local from the village, no one helped the labourer. "He came from Chennai. He went to the police and block office but no one helped. Then, he went to the jungle."

Later, the police took him to the quarantine centre.

As per the Union Health Ministry, there are 2,608 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the Odisha, including 996 active cases, 1,604 recovered/discharged/migrated and 8 deaths.

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News Network
July 12,2020

Tamil Nadu, Jul 12: An alleged attempt by a 19-year-old man to "open a branch of the State Bank of India" at Panruti near Tamil Nadu was scuttled and he was arrested for forgery, police said on Saturday.

The man, son of retired SBI employees, had readied fake seals and challans of the public sector lender, and had other paraphernalia like a cash counting machine needed "to run a bank branch," on an upper floor of his residence at Panruti, about 25 km from Tamil Nadu.

He had not, however, put up any signboard. The SBI Panruti branch manager lodged a complaint with police seeking action following a tip-off by a customer that the man was "opening an SBI branch and has challans as well."

A printer who printed the challans and another who had made fake seals were held for similar offences and abetment.

They were produced before a magistrate court and enlarged on bail.

Asked if the man had cheated people by soliciting deposits or facilitating loans, Panruti police inspector K Ambethkar said, "no..we have not received any such complaint so far."

The man's late father had worked for SBI and his mother had retired from the same bank some time back, he said.

To a question, the police inspector said the man's mother, who has mobility issues, and another woman a relative living in the same house had no clue about his "idea."

Investigations revealed that he aspired to work for a bank and since he had closely watched banking operations for long he was "very knowledgeable" about it.

On the suspected motive, he said several of his replies were incomprehensible, childish, and strange notwithstanding his excellent understanding of the banking processes.

"He even calmly told us that he awaited approval from Mumbai to open the (SBI) branch and that he was about to put up a signboard," the inspector said, adding that the man had tried unsuccessfully to get employment on compassionate grounds in the SBI following the death of his father in harness.

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News Network
June 25,2020

Jun 25: A 16-year-old girl allegedly committed suicide at her house in east Delhi and her family members secretly buried her body, which was later exhumed for post-mortem, police said on Wednesday.

The girl, whose family hails from Jharkhand, allegedly hanged herself in a room in her house on Monday, they said.

No suicide note was recovered from the spot, police said.

Her body was exhumed on Tuesday as per the directions of the Sub Divisional Magistrate of the area. The process was carried out as her family members secretly buried her without informing the police.

The post-mortem will be conducted after Covid-19 tests, police said.

The incident took place on Monday. The reason behind her taking the extreme step is yet to be ascertained, they said.

Police said the girl lived with her mother and two siblings. The family hails from Jharkhand and are financially extremely weak. Her father died two years ago, they said.

After the father’s death, the girl's mother along with her siblings took her body to a burial ground and buried her, police said.

The police said the matter came to their notice after a neighbour alerted them about it. Following the information the body was exhumed, they said.

On questioning the girl's mother, she told police that she didn't know that one has to inform police in a suicide case, a senior police officer said.

Inquest proceedings have been initiated, police said.

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