Gujarat: Man duped of Rs 55.36 lakh on pretext of petrol pump dealership

Dahod (Gujarat), Sep 14 (IANS) A man from Gujarat’s Dahod district was duped of Rs 55.36 lakh by scammers who created a fake Hindustan Petroleum website and promised him a petrol pump dealership.

The Cyber Crime team of Dahod has arrested one of the accused from Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh.

The scam unfolded when the victim was contacted through the fraudulent website and he was asked to fill out a form. The scammers then demanded payments in stages for various fees, including registration, survey, licence, security deposit, and fuel stock. The total amount transferred by the victim amounted to Rs 55.36 lakh.

Realising that he had been defrauded, the victim lodged a complaint with the Dahod Cyber Crime Police Station. The police launched an investigation using technical analysis and human intelligence, which initially led them to Raxaul, Bihar, near the Nepal border. However, the accused had switched off his phone and moved to a new location.

Further investigation revealed the suspect’s whereabouts in Lucknow, where the Dahod Cyber Crime team successfully apprehended him. The police are now probing whether more individuals were involved in the crime and how many other victims may have been defrauded by the group.

In 2023, a petrol pump dealer near Wankaner town was cheated out of Rs 13 lakh by two individuals who promised a large diesel supply order for ground leveling work at the Hirasar airport construction site on the Rajkot-Ahmedabad highway.

According to the complaint lodged by Manvendrasinh Jadeja, a dealer with a public-sector oil marketing company who operates a petrol pump near the Wankaner boundary, two men -- identifying themselves as Manish Sharma and Raj Thakor -- approached him, claiming to be contractors working at the under-construction Hirasar airport.

The duo convinced Jadeja that they required a substantial quantity of diesel on a 10-day credit to operate excavator machines for airport ground leveling. To support their claim, they provided company letterhead, a blank cheque, and a photocopy of an Aadhaar card belonging to one Deepak Kumar. However, they failed to produce a GST certificate and PAN card details when Jadeja requested them, raising suspicion.