New Delhi: Two youths, who used to allegedly dupe gullible buyers by posting online ads of high-end smartphones at throwaway prices and then handed them cheap duplicates have been arrested, police said.  The two accused, identified as Harpreet Singh (21) and Sahil (21) were arrested by the staff of Outer district.

The original phones, money and a car used in the commission of the crime have been recovered by the police.  “On Thursday, one Sachin Yadav had reported that he has been cheated of Rs 22,500 by two youths who were in a black colour Ford Figo car. They had showed him an original Samsung Galaxy S-5 Gold Phone and had handed over him a duplicate phone in lieu of the money,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Outer) Vikramjit Singh.

Police registered a case of cheating and investigation was taken up.

On the basis of the number noted by the complainant of the car used by the suspects, ownership of the vehicle was ascertained from traffic enquiry.

A police team was sent to the address received from traffic enquiry and Harpreet Singh was arrested from C-376 Sec-1 Rohini, Delhi. On sustained interrogation Singh produced the Samsung Galaxy S-5 Gold phone which he had showed to the customers for sale and had handed over a cheap copy of the phone, police said.

After the arrest of Singh, search of his associate, identified as Sahil was made and he was also arrested from Pushpanjali where the vehicle used in the case was parked by Harpreet Singh so that no one could trace them.  Rs 22,500 which were taken from the complainant were recovered from Sahil and the car which was used in the offence was also recovered.

“The duo also disclosed that they had applied same modus operandi earlier also. In the earlier instance, they had showed Sony Xperia Z ultra phone to a victim, taken Rs 5000 from him and gave him a replica of Samsung Galaxy S-5,” said Singh.

An FIR in this regard was found pending at North Rohini Police Station. That Sony Xperia Z ultra phone was also recovered from Harpreet Singh from his house.  “Both the accused are second year graduation students who used to place advertisement on a popular classified website regarding selling phone at low price, while finalizing the deal they used to show original phone to check and later changed it with duplicate phone by distracting the buyer in conversation on the pretext of changing the SIM,” said Singh.