Dimapur, July 29 2010: More than two years after he duped several gullible Nagas to a tune of more than one crore rupees from Dimapur alone, 34-year old Abu Sayed was finally arrested by Dimapur police from Lakhimpur, Assam on July 24.The modus operandi of the accused was to lure victims by offering double the amount of genuine currency with counterfeit notes.

SP Dimapur Liremo Lotha said that in 2007 Dimapur-born Sayed's wife, Khusboo, lured some Naga women with an offer that her husband used to make money with certain equipments and chemicals.

Her first two victims, both Naga women, went along to Ahmedpur under Lakhimpur district and got double of the Rs.5000 deposited with Abu Sayed.

They in turn lured more people while Sayed, who succeeded in winning the confidence of the gullible victims, began devising ways to lure them into his trap.

In one incident on December 22, 2007 some Naga women on the second trip handed over Rs.3,20,000 to Abu Sayed to get back double the amount.

Abu gave them a big packet with instructions to dip it in water on reaching home so that the chemical would assume true print of currency notes.

However, to their utter dismay, they discovered the packet was filled with burned papers.

When the women went back to Abu, he convinced them that he would do the needful if they brought genuine notes to make up for the loss.

Abu meanwhile, continued to dupe more people using the same modus operandi and defrauded victims of a total of Rs 1, 10, 08,000 (one crore ten lakhs and eight thousand).

Some of the victims had invested Rs 37 lakhs and some Rs 15 lakhs individually.

The SP said there could be more unreported cases and that the amount could be much higher.

On February 2, 2008, an FIR was lodged with East PS by one of the victims who was duped of Rs 10 Lakhs that a case was registered.

Based on the complaint, OC East Atu Zumv� and I/O of the case SI Mhabeni went to Mangalmora, Lakhimpur but unfortunately their movement was leaked out and Sayed managed to escape.

However, they rescued three persons identified as Jamal Chaudhury, Atoli and Khetoli (all from Nagaland) who were illegally confined by the accused.

It may be mentioned that Sayed had even demanded a ransom of Rs 45,000 from the wife of Jamal Choudhury for his release.

After nearly two years, a decoy informer was engaged at North Lakhimpur town and Sayed was finally arrested from Mangalmora by the same team of Dimapur police.

After completing all formalities, the accused was finally brought to Dimapur on July 25 and remanded to 10 days police custody.

On interrogation, the accused confessed that he was a one time stone mason who learned the devious means of cheating people from two persons.

However after a quarrel, they parted ways.

He also named Muifs Uddin alias Boss, Hemo Hazarika, Usman, Noimol Hussain, Zakir Hussain, Zumer Ali, Ruhum Ali and Ismail as his accomplices.

The accused also gave a demonstration in front of media and police on making fake notes by using dettol, papers and cello tape.

Dimapur police said the accused used to call up and threaten victims with dire consequences claming to have high political connections.

SP Dimapur also did not rule out the possibility of Sayed having links with the ultras and local people in Nagaland.

He also said that the accused was previously arrested by Assam police at Golaghat with a sum of Rs 1, 55,000 but was released after two months.

Meanwhile, recalling the events, one of the victims disclosed that the accused had even confined them illegally and threatened to have them killed by ULFA when they went to confront him.

"He used to threaten us and ordered us to go back to Dimapur" she said.

While another victim revealed that while they were counting the money, the wife of the accused used to run to them and shouting that a police raid was to take place.

They then had to flee to Dimapur leaving behind their money.

Police said Abu's 'clients' were not only from Nagaland but also Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh.

By the time he was arrested, Sayed had already bought three buildings in Lakhimpur, married three wives and a leading a luxurious life.

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