Man steals rickshaw puller’s SIM card, later uses it to dupe bike seller

A 29-year-old man stole a SIM card from a rickshaw puller’s mobile phone on the pretext of using his mobile and later used the SIM to make calls to dupe a doctor who wanted to sell his motorbike in Kolkata.

The phone, which the accused used to call the bike-seller, was also a stolen one, the police said. The accused has been arrested from North 24 Parganas district, around 30 km north of Kolkata.

A senior officer of the Kolkata Police’s detective department said that Chandradeep Singh, 34, a doctor with a state-run hospital, wanted to sell his motorbike. He gave an advertisement for it on an online selling platform.

Thereafter, he received a call from the accused Gouranga Kirtania who showed interest in purchasing the motorbike. On October 2, the duo met at Jadavpur in south suburban Kolkata. Kirtania wanted a test drive to which Singh readily agreed.

“But the accused, on the pretext of taking a test drive, fled with the motorbike. When Singh realised that he has been duped, he lodged a complaint with the Kolkata Police,” said the officer.

Investigation revealed that the SIM card from which Kirtania called the doctor belongs to a rickshaw puller, who stays in Dum Dum in the northern fringes of the city. Interrogating the rickshaw puller, police learnt that Kirtania had hired his rickshaw a few days ago.

“He took the rickshaw puller’s mobile phone on the pretext of making a call and stole the SIM card. The rickshaw puller realized it much later,” said a senior police officer.

The mobile number was put under surveillance and it was found that Kirtania was using it from another mobile. Police tracked Kirtania and he was arrested earlier this week.

“Interrogation further revealed that the phone from which he made calls was also stolen. The bike was also recovered,” said the officer.

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