Thursday, September 15, 2011

How a businessman clipped the con before it stung

GANGTOK, 12 Sept: Assisting the Meghalaya and Sikkim police in the speedy arrest of Daniel Hawk from Gangtok yesterday was a local businessman. Ajay Agarwal of Deokaran Brothers, MG Marg, is the aware and alert businessman who facilitated the arrest after he was approached by Daniel and made suspicious by his behaviour.
“He came to me with his two year old daughter with some queries about telecom connectivity here and slowly started to get friendly with me,” informs Mr. Agarwal whose shop is a BSNL franchisee.
He says that Daniel brought proposals of setting up a call centre here at a cost only Rs. 50,000 against the minimum of Rs. 2-3 lakh which it usually costs to setup a franchise here.
Mr. Agarwal informs that at first nothing seemed suspicious about the young man barely 29 years of age. He became wary when Daniel started calling him and asking for money claiming that his daughter was either hungry or he was facing problems for his accommodation. He always contended that money was in the process of being transferred into his account with a bank here in a few days time.
Mr. Agarwal made some enquiries and soon learned that there was no money in the account. “Then I knew something was wrong and started my own investigation,” he reveals.
It is then when that he logged into the Meghalaya Police website and found that Daniel Hawk was a fugitive on the run from Shillong. It helped that the Shillong ASP happened to be Mr. Agarwal’s friend and the fugitive’s wanted status was soon officially confirmed.
“I called the Meghalaya police and they asked me to keep them informed and that they were sending a requisition to Sadar police for his arrest. I know there is a reward associated with the arrest but my objective was beyond any reward, I wanted the police to arrest this fugitive as he was trying to fool people here as he had done back in Meghalaya. I kept my nerves and played along with him,” says Mr. Agarwal.
Mr. Agarwal also called up other locals whom Daniel had approached a day before his arrest and who were probably in the process of being cheated and told them about his wanted status.
“I called the Sikkim police on 10 September and the arrest was made after the requisition arrived from Meghalaya in the morning yesterday,” he states. 
Mr. Agarwal who through his brave act and presence of mind led to the arrest of the fugitive is however not convinced that Daniel was operating alone in Gangtok. He informs that records of all phone calls made by Daniel have been kept as record on his mobile phone which could lead the police to a developing nexus here in Sikkim.

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