The District Crime Branch, Ernakulam Rural, on Saturday arrested two persons on charge of cheating a family of around ₹2.25 crore on false promise to bring back a person facing travel ban and stranded in Qatar.
The arrested were identified as Muhammed Aslam Maulavi, 50, of Pezhakkapilly, and Muhammed Bijli, 54, of Kanjirappally.
According to police, an industrialist from Perumbavur who has been doing business in Qatar since 2008 ran into trouble in 2016 after a cheque worth lakhs bounced. This was followed by a travel ban.
The family desperate to see his return was then approached by the accused claiming that they could bring him back by levering their influence in high places in the Middle East country if the right price was paid. They convinced the family that they had brought back many, including celebrities, facing similar predicaments abroad in the past.
For the next three years, police said, the family kept on paying and the amount in due course touched a high of ₹2.25 crore. However, the return of the family member didn’t materialise and he was eventually arrested in the cheque case and now remains jailed there.
The family realising their folly petitioned the Chief Minister and law enforcement agencies following which the accused started trying to secure anticipatory bail. However, their efforts failed following which the Crime Branch arrested them from Muvattupuzha on Saturday morning. They were charged with IPC Sections 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing payment of property).
They were produced before the court and remanded. They were now kept in the COVID-19 detention centre of the police at Karukutty.
