"Journalist" couple booked for fraud

CHANDIGARH, Jan 14: A Panchkula-based couple, reportedly posing as journalists of a vernacular daily, were booked on charges of defrauding a city resident. They "received" money from the complainant after promising to get him employment.Two more cases of fraud were also detected in the city.

According to police sources, a Sector 18 resident Simranjit Singh complained that he gave Rs 30,000 to Davinder Singh and his wife Manjit Kaur (who were posing as journalists), after they assured to arrange a suitable job for him. But the two neither got him a job nor returned his money. No arrests have been made so far. In another case, a Sector 20 resident Ashima Singh complained to the police that she had bought a flat in Mansa Devi Complex from R. S. Pathania, a former security officer with a nationalised bank. She paid Rs 4 lakh to him but later discovered that she could not get possession of the flat as a bank loan was due from Pathania. Ashima said she didn’t get the money back either also.

In another case, the police have booked Ludhiana resident Parampreet Singh, who is reportedly already arrested in a "fraud and cheating" case. According to police, he withdrew Rs 4.6 lakh from a bank in the Industrial Area on a forged bank draft. The money was withdrawn from the account of Parmar Construction Company. Later, it was found that the draft had reportedly been stolen from a bank.