Pune police bust fake shopittoday.in for cheating people of crores
Pune, April 16 : Officials from Pune city police’s cyber cell have arrested a five member gang from Delhi which used to cheat people through www.shopittoday.in website under pretext of selling various products at discounted rates. Police said that the gang did transactions worth about Rs 9 crores in the last one year.
The gang members used to ask customers to pay for only value added tax, refundable deposit, and insurance etc to get the product but did not send the products.
Police busted the gang based on a complaint Pune-based accountant Pankaj Modani (38), a resident of Kothrud, who was made to pay Rs 4.68 lakh as various charges for a camera worth Rs 1.5 lakh. However he did not receive the camera. It was then that he lodged a police complaint on April 12.
A team led by assistant police inspector Girisha Nimbalkar raided the call centre of the Shop It Today Pvt Ltd in Karkardooma area of Delhi, on April 13 and nabbed five persons working there.
The arrested accused have been identified as Anujkumar Tiwari (35), Vikas Rawat (24), Devsingh Gautam (23), Pawan Mishra (18) and Sunnykumar Chand (24), all residents of Delhi. The accused have been remanded to police custody till April 22. The ring leader Deepak Kumar Payarelal and two others are on the run.
According to police, Modani had received a call from Shop It Today India Pvt Ltd saying that his mobile number has been shortlisted under promotional activity and he is eligible to one item by just paying the value added tax (VAT) money i.e 12.5 percent of the total cost of the selected product. They also sent an email from [email protected]. Modani selected Canon camera and he was asked to pay Rs 4.68 lakh between January and March this year. However he neither received the camera nor the cash benefit promised by the company.
DCP (cyber cell) Deepak Sakore said, “The gang operated in highly organised manner. They lured customers though discounts on various products available on their website shopittoday.in. After taking money they didn’t send the product paid for by the customer.”
Senior police inspector Sunil Pawar, in-charge of cyber cell, added, “Preliminary investigations have revealed that the accused have cheated hundreds of people from all over India. Till now we have checked bank accounts of the last one year wherein transactions worth Rs 9 crores have been done.”
Police officials said that Anujkumar was responsible for withdrawing money from the bank as soon they got message of money transfer from customers, Rawat worked as accountant, Devisingh who worked as a watchman but was shown as director of the company, Pawan was responsible for calling various customers and Sunnykumar was managing the website. Deepak, the main accused, worked behind the scene.
Investigation team included API Sanjay Thenge, PSI Praveen Swami and policemen Mohan Salvi, Aslam Attar, Ajit Kurhe, Raju Bhise, Rajkumar Jaba, Madhuri Doke, Shrish Gavde, Balose Karale, Avinash Daravade, Nitin Chandane, Bhaskar Bharti, Deepak Mane, Amit Avchare, Ashwin Kumar.
