With the price of tomatoes skyrocketing in Odisha, many bizarre incidents are taking place across the State. In another such kind of incident, a conman posing himself as a customer escaped from a vegetable shop after buying two kilograms of tomatoes by mortgaging two minor boys at Chhatra Bazar in Cuttack on Saturday.
As per reports, the fraudster had hired the minor boys on the pretext of loading a refrigerator. He took both of them to the market and asked them to sit near the vegetable shop while dealing with two vendors to buy tomatoes.
Subsequently, he purchased two kilograms of tomatoes from one of those vendors and tactfully fled from the spot without making payment and saying that he will bring money that he has kept in his motorcycle’s side-box. He also told the vendor that he would buy 10 more kilograms of tomatoes after bringing money from his bike.
However, he never returned to give the payment. When he didn’t turn up after more than two hours, the vendor became suspicious. Subsequently, he enquired about the whereabouts of the fraudster but failed to locate him.
When he asked the minor boys sitting near his shop about the identification and whereabouts of the conman, they said that they did not know the man.
“We don’t know the man. He had hired us by fixing a wage of Rs 300 to load a refrigerator. He asked us to come to the market and sit here and we just followed him. We do not know him and we have been cheated,” said one of the minor boys.
The identification and the whereabouts of the man and why did he hire the minor boys and cheat the vegetable vendor are yet to be ascertained.