Attempt to loot cop's son lands con man in police net in Pathankot

Ravi Dhaliwal

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Pathankot, October 9

He was dubbed “the perfect con artist” by a special team of the Pathankot police.

The smooth manner in which Mohan Lal, a former Army man, used to swindle the money of unemployed youngsters after promising them jobs in the defence forces had left the team members startled at his ingenuity.

Several FIRs pertaining to forgery and cheating have been registered against him in various police stations. However, nemesis finally caught up with him today, after he had left 90-odd youngsters poorer by crores of rupees.

SSP Harkamal Preet Singh Khakh says in the past four years, the fraudster had hoodwinked scores of ex-servicemen. “He was a wolf in sheep’s clothing. He had the art of making people believe something is real when they knew perfectly well it is not,” he said.

Officers say Mohan Lal, a proclaimed offender since 2016, could have gone on and on with his white-collor crime, but a blunder committed by him led the police to his doorstep. “He committed the mistake of trying to dupe a local police officer’s son. That was when we decided to tighten the noose. He particularly targeted ex-servicemen because of his logic that they were gullible and hence easy to trick. We are still probing the enormity of his crimes,” the SSP added. He used to ask for money through fake websites and messages.

For the past four years, complaints had been pouring in regularly from almost all police stations of Pathankot. “Last week, we established a special team to zero in on him,” said an officer.

He was nailed when the special team set up a decoy who filled the form on the website advertised by Mohan Lal. Later, using technology to their advantage, the police nabbed the suspect today just as he was about to defraud the decoy of Rs 4 lakh for the job of an Army sepoy.