Maharashtra: Man poses as hotel manager, flees with laptop

Imposter posing as manager of a renowned hotel cheated a manager of an electronics gadget store at a mall in Thane.

Thane, Dec 23: Two persons have been booked for allegedly cheating the manager of an electronics gadget store at a mall here and fleeing with a laptop, police said today.

According to a complaint lodged by the store manager, a man looking for a laptop came to his shop on Wednesday. The accused, who claimed to be the manager of a renowned hotel in the city and identified himself as Lalwani, selected a laptop worth Rs 62,000, police said.

He then said he was heading to his hotel for a meeting and that he would call up the store for delivering the gadget to his place.

Later, after his call, the store manager went to the hotel. There, the accused took the laptop and handed it over to his accomplice to gift wrap it. The accused then told the store manger to prepare a receipt and on the pretext of going to bring the payment amount, he disappeared from there.

When the man and his accomplice did not show up for a long time, the store manager enquired from the hotel staff, who told him there was no manager of that name at the place, police said.

The victim then approached the Vartak Nagar police who registered an offence yesterday under IPC sections 420 (cheating) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) in connection with the incident.

A manhunt has been launched to nab the two accused, police said, adding that they will view the CCTV footage of the hotel to trace the culprits.

PTI