Mumbai: Duo inspired by YouTube easy money videos, lands behind bars

Two men who tried to make easy money by watching tips on Youtube videos landed behind the bars. Inspired by these videos the duo bought used cars from e-commerce website, forged their documents and sold them to a third person through the same site. The matter came to light when a doctor from Nagpur took the car for RTO test and learned that the documents of the vehicles are bogus.

The two accused from Bhayendar Rohit Dhawan alias Prithvi Amin, 30, from Vasai and Runit Jayprakash Shah, 35, are well-qualified. Dhawan is a distributor for a water purifier while Shah works in the marketing department of an IT firm. "They are educated, doing financially stable, but were lured by the `how to make easy money' videos on YouTube," said senior police inspector Jayraj Ranaware, Thane police, Crime branch Unit -5.

The entire scam was hatched by Dhawan while Shah actively participated in it. They bought three mobile phones from OLX, and sim cards from the roadside vendors. Now they decided to bait for car owners who had car loans and wanted to sell their vehicles.

Based on CCTV recordings and technical analysis, Thane crime branch arrested the duo on January 31. "They used the sim cards only for their deals, otherwise their phones would be switched off. It was quite difficult to trace their phones," he said. The accused were produced in Thane court on Friday and have been remanded to seven days police custody.