Pune: The Pimpri Chinchwad police on Sunday night arrested two men on the charge of duping a scrap vendor by purchasing his car using fake currency.The duo had finalised the deal of the car for Rs 3.50 lakh and gave Rs 3 lakh in cash to him. Before the owner could count the money, the duo left the spot in a hurry, claiming that they wanted to perform ‘puja’. After counting the money, the car owner found that only three notes in the bundle were original and the remaining were fake.When the car owner found that the duo’s cellphone numbers were not reachable, he immediately approached the North Chakan police and lodged a complaint. A police team led by senior police inspector Sanjay Solanke swung into action and took the duo, Ganesh Dhakare, 21, and Samir Mhalle, 26, into custody from their rented accommodation in Shelgaon in Khed taluka. “We have recovered more fake currency notes from their room,” an officer from the North Chakan police said.Hujeb Bagwan, 26, a scrap vendor from Baramati, has lodged a complaint with the police.The investigating officer, Pradip Dhamdhere, said that the complainant wanted to sell his hatchback car. The duo contacted him and asked him to come to Manik Chowk in Chakan with the car on Sunday. The duo checked the car and finalised the deal for Rs 3.50 lakh. “The duo told Bagwan that they would pay Rs 3 lakh in cash immediately and the remaining Rs 50,000 after the registration of the car in their name,” Dhamdhere said.The officer said that the complainant believed them and took cash, Rs 3 lakh, from them. The duo left the spot under the pretext of performing the car’s puja. The complainant later found only three original currency notes in the bundle and realised that he was cheated. He approached the police and lodged a complaint. “The arrested duo are from Akola district and used to work as daily wage workers. To earn fast money, they duped the complainant. We are investigating the source from where they had procured the fake currency notes,” the officer said.
