A 30-year-old man was arrested from Delhi on Thursday for allegedly stealing ₹2 lakh and a mobile phone from a Nepalese trader after luring him to Gurugram over a trade deal of supplying iPhones at cheap rates, police said on Friday.
Police identified the suspect as Mohammad Ghalib, originally from Sitamarhi in Bihar, living in Paharganj, Delhi from where he was arrested by a crime branch team led by inspector Narender Sharmaand was taken on three-day police remand on Friday for interrogation. Police said Ghalib’s another associate, the prime accused involved in the theft was on the run. Police said the duo had cheated at least four more Nepalese traders in a similar way in the past.
Sandeep Turan, public relations officer of Gurugram police, said that Ghalib and his associate had travelled to Nepal a couple of months back and had befriended a Nepalese trader Bharat Shahi, 35, there.
“The duo posed as influential businessmen of Delhi and had promised Shahi that they could get him iPhones imported from the USA at a cheap rate of ₹5000for sale in Nepal,” he said.
Investigators said that the duo kept in touch with Shahi and lured him to Gurugram for a bulk deal on December 29. They had booked a room for him in a hotel in Sushant Lok-I.
Police said that the victim decided to test their credibility with four phones and on pretext of the deal, the duo met him at the room on December 29 but fled with ₹2 lakh cash and his phone after locking the room from outside when Shahi went to the washroom.
On Shahi’s complaint, an FIR was registered against the suspects under sections 305 (theft in a dwelling house) and 3(5) (common intention) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita at Sector-43 police station on December 29