Mumbai Man Fakes Rs 35 Lakh Robbery, Had Failed To Pay For New Apartment

Unable to raise the required amount for the flat he purchased, a 32-year-old man on Wednesday staged a robbery of Rs 35 lakh with the help of his driver at Matunga in central Mumbai, but their trickery was detected by the police within two hours, an official said.

The man, Ajit Patel, a resident of Andheri east, approached the police with the complaint of robbery. He told the police he was robbed of Rs 35 lakh by two unidentified persons at Nappu Road in Matunga east, he said.

According to him, the robbers, who were on a two-wheeler, fled from the spot after snatching his bag containing the cash, the police official said.

The Matunga police then started questioning Patel and another person accompanying him to get more information about the incident, he said.

During their separate questioning, the police found discrepancies in their versions about the robbery incident they were talking about. The police then visited the spot and examined the CCTV footage. With the help of technical support, they found that no robbery took place there, the police official said.

"As the complainant realised that the police had found his robbery complaint to be wrong, he revealed the truth. The other person turned out to be his driver," he said.

Patel told the police that he had purchased a flat, but since he failed to raise Rs 35 lakh that he was supposed to pay, he fabricated a story of his robbery so that he gets more time to pay the amount, he added.

The police registered a non-cognisable offence against the complainant and his driver for providing false information to them, he said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)