Woman held for allegedly duping businessman to the tune of Rs20 lakh

The LT Marg police on Tuesday arrested a 38-year old woman for allegedly duping a businessman to the tune of Rs20 lakh by making him invest money while promising high returns. The woman claimed that she had bagged a contract of designing costumes for a popular television serial.

The woman has been identified as Ranjan Ashok Malesha, a resident of Umarkhadi in Dongri.

According to the police, the complainant, Bhavesh Rathod has a furniture shop at Fort. Two years ago, Rathod had met Malesha through a common friend. Malesha claimed that she had got a costume designing contract of a popular television show.

"Malesha had told Rathod that he would get almost 12 per cent if he invests Rs25 lakh in the said project and would also be paid the principal amount later. Rathod told Malesha that he could only pay Rs20 lakh. Between December 2012 and February last year, Rathod paid Rs15 lakh through cheque and the remaining in cash," said an officer from LT Marg police station.

He added that Malesha had given a few post-dated cheques to Rathod and when he tried to deposit them, she told him not to do so as she was facing a financial crisis. "Even after a few months when Malesha could not pay Rathod, the latter filed a case of cheating. We are investigating whether she had duped others similarly," the officer said.