PANAJI
A habitual fraudster who once was selected to be a police constable but never took up posting is allegedly using his ID to loot people through marketing apps and social media.
Suraj Pendse is on the radar of sleuths from Goa Police’s Cyber Crime Cell, which told The Goan that he has already looted a young filmmaker from Kundaim to the tune of Rs 40,000 on the pretext of selling a car through the OLX website.
The youth has lodged a complaint with the Cyber Crime Cell and a hunt has been launched to nab Pendse. Interestingly, Pendse has again advertised sale of a second-hand car with fresh contact numbers.
Police said that another complaint is registered by them against Pendse. Three more cases were registered and are pending investigation at the Anjuna police station, they added.
A youth who works in Mumbai has complained that to fulfill his dream of buying a car he browsed the OLX website for a second-hand car. Pendse had uploaded an advert on the site to sell a second-hand silver-coloured Wagon-R, which he never possessed, for Rs 2.20 lakh.
When the complainant contacted him, Pendse said he was in a hospital in Ratnagiri where his wife was admitted. He claimed he needed around Rs 40,000 urgently and requested for the sum to finalise the deal.
He introduced himself as a police constable and sent his Aadhar card and police ID to the complainant. He also gave the reference of one LDC from the Mapusa PWD office. Pendse said that he was working in the SDPO Margao.
The complainant verified the identity of Pendse by calling the reference from the Mapusa PWD office and paid Rs 40,000 to Pendse through a bank transfer on September 22. Pendse who called back to say he received the money also said that he will hand over the car along with papers at the police headquarters but never turned up.
He then demanded an additional Rs 20,000 but the complainant doubted his intention and tried to verify whether he is really working in SDPO Margao where to his shock he found out the truth.
Pendse then went underground after switching off both his cell phones following which the complaint was lodged with the Cyber Crime cell.
