The Kalamassery police on Monday arrested a conman on the charge of cheating people by offering to arrange luxury cars on auction from the Central Board of Excise and Customs.
The accused was identified as Bipin Babu, 38, a resident of Edappally. The police said he had cheated a businessman from Edappally and received lakhs of rupees from the trader by offering a luxury car at a lower price.
The accused even took the complainant to the Central Excise office once and pretended to have interacted with some top officials after asking him to stay outside. “The fraud came to light when the complainant contacted the office and checked the status of his bid,” officials said. Following this, he lodged a complaint with the police. Further investigations revealed that he had also collected Rs.4 lakh from a person in the pretext of arranging a job with the Central Excise. Officials said the accused duped Rs.3 lakh of another person by offering bulk quantity of cement produced by the Tamil Nadu government at a cheaper price.