PUNE: An Iranian couple who came to India on tourist visa and lived in a hotel in New Delhi, allegedly cheated people of cash and valuables. They stole Rs 24,500 from a medical shop in Yerwada under pretext of checking how Indian currency looks like.
However, they ran out of luck and sleuths from Pune City Police Crime Branch arrested them at a hotel on Wednesday night.
The arrested persons were identified as Mohammad Shamsabad Abolfazal (28) and his wife Reshma Ahmadi Firoz, both natives of Tehran in Iran.
According to the police, a medical shop owner lodged an FIR with Yerwada police stating that on November 18 at 9 pm, a couple came to his shop near Sun City Chowk in Vadgaonsheri. “They claimed to be from Turkistan and wanted to buy some medicine. After some conversation they asked me to show Indian currency notes as they had not seen them. I took out a bundle of Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 denominations totalling Rs 50,000. However, they cleverly stole Rs 24,500,” the complainant told the police.
While investigating the case, the police obtained CCTV footage and checked various hotels in the Pune station and Koregaon Park areas. “We received information about a couple staying at a hotel on Dhole Patil Road. Accordingly, our team kept a watch there and when they came for dinner at 9 pm, we nabbed them. The CCTV footage clearly shows their faces. We recovered Rs 24,500 from them,” said Police Inspector Anjum Bagwan, in-charge of Crime Branch Unit 4.The police said the couple came to India in June this year on tourist visa. They reached Pune on November 17 and stayed at a posh hotel with their son. The cops suspect the couple has cheated more people in similar manner.
Additional CP (Crime) Ashok Morale, DCP (Crime) Bachchan Singh, ACP Vijay Chaudhary supervised the investigation team which included Police Sub Inspector Vijay Zanjad, ASI Bhalchandra Borkar, Head Constables Jitendra Tupe and Hanumant Borate.
