Fake food coupon racket busted; 4 held

The Oshiwara police have busted a racket of fake food coupons and arrested four persons. According to the police, the accused had made fake food coupons of the Sodexho company, worth more than 30 lakh. The arrested accused have been identified as Dinesh Ramji Patel, Devraj Patel, Bhojraj Patel and Rajesh Panchal.

The matter came to light, when the accused Dinesh and Devraj visited the Food Bazaar outlet at the Infinity Mall in the Oshiwara Link Road on June 5 with the fake food coupons and bought stocks worth Rs1,835.

“The manager of the outlet, however, got suspicious when he saw the coupons. He immediately contacted officials of the Sodexho Company.

When the company officials inspected the coupons, it was discovered that the coupons were fake,” senior police inspector  Kiran Sonone of the Oshiwara police station told DNA.

“Complainant in the case and Food Bazaar manager, Shivram Mulam checked the coupons and suspected foul play,” he added.  Sonone said timely action taken by Mulam had helped police arrest Dinesh on the same day, while his associate Devraj managed to flee. He was finally arrested on June 8.

During the interrogations, it was learnt that the accused had two more associates, namely Bhojraj Patel and Rajesh Panchal, who were involved in the racket of making fake food coupons. “The latter were arrested on Monday from Bhandup,” police added.

“When we raided the Thane office of the accused, we recovered fake food coupons worth over Rs 30 lakh,” Sonone said.

Explaining the modus operandi of the four accused, Sonone said, “The fake food coupons were being printed using scanner and computer. The accused first made plates of the coupons from the hard-disk and then printed them out.

We are probing whether there were some more persons involved in the racket, and also whether they have conned other people in the past too.”

Dinesh and Devraj are now in judicial custody while the others have been remanded in police custody till June 27.