A 42-year-old man, who cheated an ‘illegal’ forex agent, based in Old City, of $30,000 by impersonating as a doctor last month, was arrested by the Cyberabad police here on Friday.
On July 26, the accused, Suleman Mohammed Khan alias Siddiqui of Goa, cheated Mohammed Jaffar by promising him higher commission in exchange of foreign currency. “They met at a coffee shop at Gachibowli and later Siddiqui took Jaffar to Outer Ring Road in a car and exchanged the currency,” said Cyberabad Commissioner of Police V.C. Sajjanar.
Suspecting foul play, Jaffar counted the Indian notes and found huge quantity of pink papers in the size of currency notes stacked between the original notes. “The accused threatened Jaffar and fled with the U.S. dollars at gun point,” Mr. Sajjanar said.
The Madhapur Zone Special Operations team led by inspector Purushotham and Narsingi and Raidurgam Inspector G.V. Ramana Goud and M. Ram Babu respectively analysed the footages of surveillance cameras in the area to identify the suspect.
Repeat offender
“During the course of investigation, we came to know that the accused was a repeat offender and was in Hyderabad on July 26. He had stayed at a newly-inaugurated star hotel in Madhapur. With the available information, we zeroed in on his movement and nabbed him,” the Commissioner said.
The accused was involved in the murder of a 75-year-old woman in Goa in 2014 and was also involved in a fraudulent land deal in Pune in 2013.
He was also involved in a similar forex fraud in May and had cheated Polepalli Buchaiah of Karmanghat and Javed from the city.
The Cyberabad police seized one country-made pistol, seven live rounds, four cars, 304 grams of gold ornaments, ₹26 lakh, $15,000 and ₹5.74 lakh of demonetised currency from his possession.
“We also recovered counterfeit currency of ₹2,000 notes stuffed in five bags and 42 mobile phones from Siddiqui,” Mr Sajjanar said.
