Nagpur: A 29-year-old MD student was duped of Rs 3 lakh by three persons on the pretext of opening a courier office at her residence on Bhandara Road. The incident took place between December 22, 2016 and till December 26 this year.
Nafis Sheikh had seen an advertisement on social media of a Noida-based courier company Air Post India Courier and Logistic, who wanted to open a branch in Nagpur. After watching the advertisement Nafis contacted them through a number given on the advertisement and showed interest in opening the branch at her home. The accused, identified as Arvind Gandhi, Romi Dharamveer and Manish Devsingh, asked Nafis to visit their office in Noida.
Nafis, who is doing post-graduation as skin specialist at a Bengaluru-based college, visited the courier company in Noida. Subsequently, she agreed to open the branch at her house in Nagpur but the tricksters told her that she had to deposit Rs 5 lakh as caution money. Nafis agreed to it and again visited Noida to handover the cheque.
She gave a cheque for Rs 3 lakh to the accused, who told her that she should start designing the office in Nagpur.
Nafis had invested most of her stipend for the caution money. A month later, Nafis tried to contact Gandhi who claimed to own the courier company, but she could not contact him. After a long wait, she visited Noida again to talk to the tricksters personally and learn the progress of the courier branch. However, she was shocked to find out that the office in Noida wasn’t there.
She tried to trace down the tricksters but in vain. She soon approached Lakadganj police station and filed a complaint of cheating and fraud.
Police said said her family depends on her, so Nafis herself investigated the matter mostly. It is learnt that many other cases are also registered against the trio at Katrnataka and Uttar Pradesh.
