Two held for cheating, one also involved in 2019 Delhi case: Mumbai police

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Two persons have been arrested here for allegedly cheating a woman by promising her hefty returns if she arranged bribe money for getting released huge funds received from abroad, police said on Saturday.

One of the accused was also involved in allegedly duping nine people in Delhi of Rs 4.5 crore in the same way two years ago, a Crime Branch official said. The accused were identified as Prasad Bholapati (37), resident of Andhra Pradesh, and Vinesh Vishwanathan (39), a resident of Mangalore in Karnataka, he said. A woman approached Ghatkopar unit of the Mumbai Crime Branch earlier this week with a complaint against the duo.

According to her, the duo posed as managing directors of a company and told her that the company had received 'education fund' of Rs 80,000 crore" from a foreign country which was stuck with the RBI. If she could arrange Rs 50 lakh to give to RBI officials for releasing the amount, they would pay her back Rs 7 crore, they allegedly told her.

The woman gave them Rs 50, 000 in advance, but later she learnt that this was a scam and Bholapati had duped some people in Delhi using the same modus operandi, the official said. The Crime Branch laid a trap and nabbed the duo at a hotel in suburban Ghatkopar three days ago.

Fake letters of the RBI, Union finance ministry and other government departments as well as fake documents of foreign banks were seized from their possession. A court has sent the two accused in police custody till Tuesday and further probe is on, the official said.

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