They would lure victims by organising free dinners at five-star hotels, where they would convince them to buy memberships
A couple, who duped thousands of people to the tune of Rs 20 crore on the pretext of providing them with holiday packages at five-star hotels, has finally fallen in the Crime Branch's net. Raman Kapoor, 40, Director of Sun Star The Club and Goodluck Hotels Private Limited, has been arrested while his wife Seema is absconding.
Talking about their modus operandi, the police said that Kapoor and his wife, along with other associates identified as Ravinder Khanna, Sarvpreet Nanda, Tapas Sacha, Sidharth Bhalla, and Sudhir, would target people in crowded places such as malls and parks. They would lure the victims with an offer of a complimentary dinner at a five-star hotel and urge them to participate in a lucky draw.
At the dinner, the gang members would start talking to the victims and try to sell membership for holiday packages at attractive prices. The offer would entail air tickets and free holiday tour of 12 nights, annually, in five-star hotels, for the next 20 years.
After that, they would lock up their fake office and disappear. It has been revealed that the gang sold the membership to more than 2,000 people and the amount of money involved ran in several crores.
The gang also claimed that their company had tie-ups with various five-star properties at all prime tourist locations in India and abroad, such as JW Marriot (Mumbai, Courtyard, Ahmedabad, and Lucknow), Le Meridian (Delhi and Chennai), ITC Welcome (Dwarka, Delhi), Leela Ambience Hotel (Delhi), and Four Points by Sheraton (Vadodara). They even told the victims that the membership could be discontinued after 10 years and they would get all the money back.
The matter came to light after Manoj Kumar, a resident of Uttam Nagar in west Delhi, approached the police.
"One of the gang members approached me and asked me to fill a lucky draw coupon. He told me that I would get a free dinner for couple at a five-star hotel in Dwarka. Later, when I went for the dinner, they offered me a cheap holiday package. They had also put up a large hoarding, with photos of celebrities like Govinda, Ravi Kishan, and Kapil Dev on it," Kumar said.
Tempted by the offer, Kumar took it up. But later, he started having doubts and decided to get his money back. He went to the gang's office in Dwarka and was told to return some other time. When he went back, the office had been shut down. Then he decided to lodge a police complaint.
On verification, it came to light that the couple was wanted in 8 other cases of cheating registered in different police stations in Delhi, Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Himmat Nagar, and Surat in Gujarat. Subsequently, several raids were organised in Delhi, Gujarat, Mumbai, Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh to nab the duo.
"Raman was caught on Monday from a hotel in Indore, where he had been hiding for days. It was later revealed that he was a graduate from the Institute of Hotel Management (IHM), Ahmedabad, and had been working in the hotel industry for the last 15 years," DCP, Crime, Madhur Verma, said.
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