On Saturday, Ghaziabad police arrested a 40-year-old man who had been pretending to be the owner of a closed sugar mill in Basti district, defrauding at least 10 scrap dealers across Uttar Pradesh of approximately ₹20 crore by offering to sell them the mill’s scrap at discounted prices, reported Hindustan Times.
The suspect, identified as Mohammad Kamruddin from Basti, operated a share trading office in Hazratganj, Lucknow. Authorities revealed that Kamruddin, an MBA, devised the fraudulent scheme to target scrap dealers after incurring losses in his share trading business during the Covid pandemic.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Rajesh Kumar explained, “We launched an investigation and arrested the suspect. He admitted to planning to deceive various scrap dealers by posing as the owner of a closed sugar mill in his hometown of Basti. In some instances, he also pretended to be a facilitator for the mill’s scrap, claiming he had a memorandum of understanding with the mill owners.”
The suspect contacted numerous scrap dealers across the state, convincing them to transfer money into accounts he controlled under the pretense of selling them mill scrap at bargain rates. He claimed this was to help the mill settle overdue payments to sugarcane farmers. When dealers visited the Basti mill after making initial payments, they discovered they had been scammed, according to the DCP.
“This scheme defrauded dealers in Ghaziabad, Meerut, Basti, Lucknow, Barabanki, and other locations. We have uncovered 10 FIRs against him in Uttar Pradesh, with total losses amounting to about ₹20 crore,” the officer added.
Ghaziabad police were able to arrest Kamruddin after tracking his locations through electronic surveillance. He was apprehended following a first information report (FIR) filed by a scrap dealer in Ghaziabad on August 14, alleging that Kamruddin had defrauded him of around ₹1.5 crore. The FIR was lodged at Nandgram police station.
