Date:30/08/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/30/stories/2008083059910300.htm

New Delhi

Six held for cheating

Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI: Six persons who allegedly cheated a businessman of Rs.5.74 crore on the pretext of supplying railway scrap to him have been arrested.

Inspector Jitender of the Crime Branch received a tip-off that some persons were trying to encash bank drafts for Rs.5.74 crore. Investigations revealed that the drafts drawn in favour of F&CAO (NR), an abbreviation for Finance and Commercial Accounts Officer (Northern Railway), had been deposited in the Defence Colony branch of ICICI Bank.

The police found that the bank account had been opened by Manohar Kumar, who was traced to his office at Kotla Mubarakpur and arrested on August 22. At his instance, the police arrested Happy Maurya and Mahesh Chand Rastogi, whereas T. N. Zuber was arrested from a hotel in Paharganj. Two other accused, Ram Pal Chauhan and Manju Nath, were also arrested.

The victim, Satish Bansal, runs a steel alloy business. To expand his business, he and his friend Jitender Dave of Mumbai decided to purchase railway scrap. Accused Ram Phal, Dharmender and Vijay Phogat fixed up an appointment with Mr. Bansal in June and allegedly took Rs.5 lakh as commission. A month later, Ram Phal showed Mr. Bansal a fake letter of intent issued by Northern Railway, the police said.