An MBA graduate, who was on the run after duping jewellery stores in Bhubaneswar and Puri by showing bogus payment transactions on his mobile phone screen, has been nabbed by the Commissionerate police from Kolkata.
The accused, identified as Rajiv Prabhas Gupta who hails from Mumbai, was arrested by a special team of Commissionerate Police from Kolkata. Gupta, who is an MBA graduate, used to cheat jewellery stores on the pretext of making online payments through Unified Payments Interface (UPI) digital payment gateway and showing fake transaction related screenshots.
DCP, Bhubaneswar, Umashankar Dash said that the 37-year-old accused was nabbed on the basis of the complaint filed by a jewellery store owner from whose shop Gupta had made purchase of gold and silver ornaments worth over Rs 1 lakh without making any payment.
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As per reports,Gupta had visited the store in Bhubaneswar on September 15. After making the necessary purchases, he allegedly asked the salesman if he could make online payment.
Dash said the accused would initially transfer Rs 10 to the UPI account of the shop or salesman in order to win trust.
“After winning the confidence by making transfer of Rs 10, the accused would claim before the storeowner/ salesman that he had made the necessary digital payments for the purchase. He would then show a bogus screenshot on his mobile phone to drive home his claims. The unsuspecting victims would hand over the articles to Gupta who would sneak out of the store in no time,” Dash said.
Senior officials said after committing the fraud in Bhubaneswar, Gupta’s next target was a jewellery store in Puri where he committed a similar offence using the same modus operandi.
Following the back-to-back crimes, Gupta kept shuttling from Delhi to Imphal and finally, Kolkata where he was caught in the Commissionerate police’s dragnet.
According to Dash, the accused used to lead a lavish lifestyle and frequently changed cities (in flights) after committing crime. However, his location was busted after the police mounted technical surveillance, before finally tracking him down.
“We urge shopkeepers to be extra cautious while making monetary transactions. We will be sharing the profile of the accused with police stations in Delhi and Imphal to ascertain his involvement in similar crimes under their jurisdictions,” Dash added.