Nat Geo consultant arrested for fraud

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 12

A 30-year-old National Geographic Channel consultant has been arrested for duping two persons of 10,000 euros at a showroom in Sector 9 here on December 24. 

The suspect, Snigdha Saurav Dash, is a habitual gambler and visited gambling hubs of Hong Kong, Singapore, Macau, Nepal, Goa and Sikkim.

According to the police, Dash is a triple degree holder. He did BTech and MTech from the NIT, Nagpur, and MBA from the IMT, Ghaziabad. Dash, as claimed by the police, wanted to make easy money by duping innocent people. 

He used to procure contact details of persons wanting to get some currency changed through justdial.com and induced them to bring the foreign currency for conversion into Indian currency on an address given by him. He used to flee right after taking the foreign currency from the victims on the pretext of bringing Indian currency.

On December 24, Dash adopted the same modus operandi. Jagdish Chander, a resident of Khuda Lahora, and Karan Kapoor, a resident of Shivalik Vihar, Nayagaon, who work at Manchanda Money Changer, Sector 32, met the suspect at a temporary office at Sector 9 to get 10,000 euros exchanged. He had taken the cabin on lease for a day on fake ID.

After taking 10,000 euros from them, Dash went to another room on the pretext of returning with Rs 8,10,000. They waited for him in the cabin but he did not return.

An FIR in this regard was registered under Section 32 and 420 of the IPC at the Sector 3 police station.

Dash, a native of Odisha, lives near Connaught Place in Delhi where he was nabbed by a UT police team on Tuesday.

On January 8, the police had received information that a person involved in a 10,000-euro fraud in Chandigarh was residing in Delhi. Acting on the tip-off, a police team, under the supervision of DSP Pawan Kumar and headed by Inspector Amanjot Singh, was sent to Delhi and the suspect was arrested.

The police claimed that after fleeing with 10,000 euros, Dash went to Delhi. Later, he took a bus for Nepal. After losing all the money at Grand Casino, Nepal, he returned to Delhi on January 2.

In 2016, the Delhi Police had arrested Dash for in a case of fraud involving 8,000 USD. He was presently out on bail.

On Tuesday, the UT police had produced him before a Duty Magistrate, which sent him to a four-day police remand, which ended today.