Juhu Police have arrested four men on Saturday for allegedly cheating Dharmjit Ramanresh Singh, a housekeeping staff member working for filmmaker Rohit Shetty. The four suspects, identified as Prakash Vyankatesh Naidu, Navnath Somnath Sathe, Rameshwar Rajendra Prasad Chaudhary, and Raju Rajesh Maurya, had been on the run for nine months before their recent capture.
The crime unfolded when Singh, who has been working with Rohit Shetty for the past two years, was lured into purchasing a fake Rs25 lakh lottery ticket by the accused. The scam took place on April 22, 2024, at Vile Parle railway station. Singh was approached by an individual who claimed to have a lottery ticket worth Rs25 lakh, guaranteed to win the jackpot. The suspect was joined by another man posing as a customer who pretended to want to buy the ticket but lacked the money. Another accomplice encouraged Singh to buy the ticket, which led him to transfer Rs25,000 to an account belonging to a person named Dinesh Kumar Shankar Jaiswal.
When the promised jackpot never materialized, Singh realized he had been cheated and reported the matter to the police, leading to the filing of an FIR. During the investigation, police received a tip-off that the four men were planning to commit another crime in Vile Parle. Acting on this information, assistant police inspector Ranjit Chavan and his team set up a trap and successfully apprehended the suspects.
The accused have confessed to their involvement in the lottery scam, and all four were produced before the Andheri local court. Further investigations are underway, as the suspects are believed to be involved in similar fraudulent activities.
