Pune:
This real-life Bunty and Babli pair played their cards so well, the dealer in foreign currency they cheated never realised their malicious motive till they had relieved him of 15,000 euros (about Rs 9 lakh). Somewhat like the Bollywood movie Bunty aur Babli about a man and a woman who dupe people by taking on different guises, the woman who did a Babli on the dealer portrayed an image of herself as a rich resident of Koregaon Park who was planning a trip to Europe.
Introducing herself as Bharat Jain, she won the confidence of the agent, Shankar Kharose (40), a resident of South Main Road, and asked him to send his employees with cash to "her bungalow" in a plush society in Koregaon Park.
When the employees reached the bungalow, she spoke to them over the phone and asked them to hand over the money to a man she was sending to meet them. The man in question came, received the money, and vanished, as if into thin air.
Later the caretaker of the bungalow confessed that he had arranged for the house to be at the disposal of a person for an hour for Rs 1,000. The caretaker said the person had wanted the place to hold an important meeting.
Jain had asked Kharose for foreign exchange of 15,000 euros. For almost 15 days she had been contacting Kharose and asked him to send his employees to her bungalow in Suyojana Society in Lane No 5 of Koregaon Park, telling him the cash in Indian currency as per the exchange rate would be handed over to the employees on the spot.
Taken in by the woman's portrayal of herself as a person from an affluent background who lived in a bungalow in Koregaon Park, Kharose did not suspect any mischief. He told his employees Surajsingh Bhimsingh Bhishta and Rohan Dnyaneshwar Pawar to go to the address given by Jain with the cash.
When Bhishta and Pawar did so, they were kept waiting at the address for nearly an hour. Finally, they reached Jain on her cell phone and she instructed them to hand over the money to a person she was sending as she was busy. This they did, and again spoke on the phone with Jain, who invited them upstairs to collect the Indian currency.
Gone with the windWhen the forex dealer's men did as told, the person who was given the euros walked away.
"My employees tried to trace the person, who had introduced himself as Satish Jain, but he was gone," Kharose said. The Bundgarden police registered a complaint against two people, who they said had been introducing themselves as Bharat and Satish Jain, for duping and plotting a criminal conspiracy against Kharose.
Deception at the bungalow> A woman identified as Bharat Jain portrays an image of herself as a rich resident of Koregaon Park to Shankar Kharose, a foreign currency exchange dealer
> Jain asks Kharose to send his employees to her bungalow in Koregaon Park with the foreign currency
> When the employees reach the bungalow she speaks to them on the phone and asks them to hand the cash over to a man
> The man takes the cash and vanishes into thin air
> The caretaker of the bungalow confesses that he had rented out the bungalow to a person for an hour for Rs 1,000