Nagpur: An inter-state gang conning women by posing as foreign grooms was busted with seven fraudsters arrested, including one from Mumbai, on Tuesday.Police seized assets and cash of more than Rs 18 lakh and pointed to the gang’s hawala links with Dubai. The action followed a complaint by a 50-year-old teacher, who was allegedly duped of Rs 20 lakh by the gang. The accused allegedly lured her with claims of gold business and business interests in the UK. An FIR was registered at Ganeshpeth police station for cheating and impersonation.After blowing the lid off the wedding-cum-business fraud, the accused all from Gujarat were identified as Jayesh Thakur, 20, Yashpal Chauhan, 24, Kuldipsing Jadeja, 26, Rajendra Vaghela, 34, Narpat Babu Singh, 27, Upendra Joshi, 28, and Bhanusing Vaghela, 29. An SUV worth Rs 15 lakh, two two-wheelers worth Rs 1.6 lakh, eight mobile phones of Rs 1.7 lakh and Rs 15,000 in cash were seized.As per the complaint, an unidentified caller befriended the woman earlier this month and claimed he wanted to come to India, marry her and settle down here. He told her he ran a gold business and owned a clothing mall in the UK and claimed he had arrived in India with 70 tolas of gold and $70,000.The caller later claimed customs officials at Delhi airport had detained him and demanded around Rs 14 lakh for releasing the gold and cash. Promising higher returns, the accused allegedly persuaded the woman to transfer Rs 20 lakh in instalments.Crime Branch officers, under DCP Deepak Aggarwal, used technical analysis to track down the network. A trap was laid after the gang began preparing to target the woman again, leading to the arrest of the seven accused. The team was led by senior PI Atul Mohankar.Interrogation indicated the accused were allegedly operating an international money-transfer or hawala network from Nagpur, with a Dubai link through Mumbai, police said. The accused were medically examined and handed over to Ganeshpeth police for further investigation.
