2 Africans held, 2 others booked for defrauding Patiala man of 3.5 lakh
Thursday, 05/03/2015
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PATIALA: Two west Africans and a British national, on Wednesday, landed in police net for defrauding a resident of a village in the district of ` 3.5 lakh.
The arrested African nationals have been identified as Louis and Duiseager Ivoy and the British national, who has been booked in the case, as William Jackson.
A property dealer of Nabha has also been booked for acting as a mediator between the foreigners and complainant Pargat Singh, a resident of Ageti village in Patiala district.
The police have registered a case against all the accused under sections 420 (cheating) and 406 (criminal breach of trust) of the IPC.
Station house officer (SHO), Civil Lines police station, Gurpratap Singh, said that the two west Africans contacted property dealer Pawan Kumar Bhardwaj through Facebook and told him that they wanted to purchase land in Patiala district for setting up a factory.
The police said Bhardwaj then contacted the complainant, who had expressed his wish to sell a piece of his land, and told him that a foreign company wished to set up a factory in the district and was looking for land. He persuaded the complainant to sell the land to the west Africans.
“The deal was finalised for ` 8.5 lakh through Facebook. Following this, the west African nationals reached Patiala and told the complainant that they would make the payment in British currency, but their money was stuck up at a money exchange company due to the shortage of amount in Indian currency with them,” the SHO said.
The SHO said the accused told the complainant that they had paid ` 5 lakh to the company, while they needed ` 3.5 lakh more to get the full payment of ` 8.5 lakh released in British currency.
“The complainant gave away ` 3.5 lakh, following which the accused eloped and stopped taking his calls. He then approached the police, which carried out a detailed investigation, and nabbed the accused when were about to fly back to their country,” Singh said. The police claimed that they arrested the accused from Patiala.
“During investigation, it also came to light that both the accused worked through the Britain national, who has been booked,” he said. Meanwhile, the police is yet to recover the amount. However, the local court sent the accused to judicial custody till March 18.
