KOCHI: The cheating incident involving a used-car dealer at Padivattom has turned into a major scam with over 40 people approaching the police with complaints of losing their money. The police investigation revealed that the accused also duped job-seekers offering employment in Horticorp.
Last week, the Palarivattom police arrested Amal A S (35) of Neyyattinkara, who was running a used-car showroom named AB Cars at Padivattom. After the arrest of Amal, over 40 people approached the police with complaints that they were duped by the accused. Currently, the police have registered 15 cases against Amal. The cases have been transferred to Kochi Metro police for conducting a detailed probe.
“We have registered 15 cheating cases against Amal. He is being interrogated. It is turning into a major scam considering the number of complaints received daily,” said Manoj K N, SHO, Kochi Metro police station.
Amal started the used-car showroom at Padivattom in 202o. Since then, he has been cheating people who wanted to sell their cars. Amal approached people offering them help to sell their cars at a high price. Later he asks them to park their cars in his showroom so that prospective buyers can inspect them. Even after selling the vehicles, he did not hand over the money to the owners. Most of the complainants have lost between Rs 3 lakh and Rs 6 lakh.
Amal is the district president of a political party’s youth wing. He won the confidence of the victims by flaunting his relations with politicians and police officers.
“Apart from cases related to car sales, four cases were registered against him for cheating job aspirants. He took money from job-seekers claiming that he was close to a minister,” Manoj said.
Meanwhile, police have launched an internal probe to check his links with the officials of Palarivattom police station. The complainants said that though they filed complaints with Palarivattom police about the cheating, no action was taken against him. After the arrest of Amal, police checked his apartment in Elamakkara and recovered a handcuff and beacon light.
The initial assumption is that the handcuff and beacon light were used to impersonate police and prevent people from approaching the police with complaints. “After the incident, police inventory was checked to know whether any police handcuffs were lost. But handcuffs with police were intact. We suspect that the accused procured the handcuff and beacon light from online platforms. An internal probe is being conducted to unearth his links with police officials,” an officer said. Meanwhile, Amal’s associates are approaching complainants to settle the matter and avoid police cases.