A 77-year-old man was duped of Rs 5.58 lakh by two people in Mumbai, according to the D B Marg police officials. The accused people posed as doctors and guaranteed the senior citizen that they would cure his diabetes and duped him.

In the 1st week of February, a person by name Saurabh Agrawal met the senior citizen outside a Jain temple which is in Girgaon, Mumbai. Agrawal told the victim that his father was suffering from diabetes and a Pune-based doctor named Sameer Punawala treated and cured him. Agrawal then gave him the doctor’s number and left the place.

After discussing with his family members, the senior citizen then called the doctor who said that he would be visiting Mumbai soon. He would visit him at his house whenever he was in Mumbai.

After a few days the so called doctor came and as a part of procedure, he inserted a needle in the senior citizen’s leg and removed some pus. He said that he will charge Rs 2,200 every visit and the victim agreed. The accused person removed liquid at least 113 times and charged the victim Rs 2.48 lakh for the procedure. Punawala prescribed him two Ayurvedic medicines and asked them to buy from a particular shop which was in Nalasopara.

Victims daughter-in-law went to that shop twice and got medicines worth Rs 2.10 lakh. Punawala visited the senior citizen again and charged Rs 1 lakh for the procedure. He again prescribed the medicines that were worth Rs 2.20 lakh. The victim told him that he has to borrow money as he doesn’t have so much money at present. The doctor then strictly told the victim not to disclose this procedure to anyone or else the medicines will not work.

The fraud was caught when the senior citizen approached one of his family members for borrowing money. After this, they registered a complaint at D B Marg police station.

Source: The Free Press Journal