Man held for duping people of nearly Rs 80l

Kolkata: A person identified as Sudipta Sarkhel has been arrested by Baguiati police station for allegedly duping people in the name of selling machines used for making products from beads and thermocol. He has been remanded to 7-day police custody by Barasat court on Sunday.

According to police sources, Sarkhel used to lure women from several districts, promising to sell them machines for making paper and thermocol items as well as ornaments manufactured from beads.

Several people gave him good amount of money in good faith. After getting the money, Sarkhel stopped communicating with the victims and left his residence at Baguiati. He also closed his office near Jyangra. At present, the amount is around Rs 80 lakh which could go up.

Since almost a year, Sarkhel was collecting money in such a manner. Apart from this method, he also supplied beads to some people who manufactured several items and returned them to Sarkhel. To lend beads, Sarkhel used to keep some money as security deposit. He also duped those people by not returning the security deposit money.

Sources informed that he used live at a rented flat in Railpukur area in Baguiati.

The landlord was also duped as he did not pay rent fr several months.

On Friday, a person identified as Maitreyi Basu Thakur filed a complaint against Sarkhel at Baguaiti police station stating that she had been cheated of Rs 14 lakh.

After commencing the probe, investigators contacted him through a lady police personnel to buy a machine. The lady police personnel lured him in to the trap. On Saturday night, when Sarkhel arrived at Jyangra to meet his next target, he was surrounded by police. He was taken to the police station and later got arrested.

Police sources informed that till Sunday evening several people had contacted Baguiati police station. More complaints are yet to come in against Sarkhel.

Among them, there is a police constable from the West Bengal Police, who was also duped in the same manner.

He was interested in buying machines for his unemployed brothers. Apart from this, investigators also got information about Sarkhel being an accused in several cheating cases in North Bengal.

During the investigation, Bidhannagar Police will contact with other police units in North Bengal to seek information about Sarkhel.