A father-son pair from Mehsana, Gujarat, cheated a businessman and took Rs 21.65 lakh from him with the help of a water seller who acted as a fake IAS officer. Jayantibhai and his son Kaushik Patel, both from Surat, first became close to a businessman named Dinesh Patel to earn his trust. After some time, they told him a fake story that the Income Tax department had raided their house and seized Rs 300 crore.

They claimed they needed money to hire a lawyer to get this money released through the court. Believing them, Dinesh Patel decided to help and sent them a large amount of money.

To make their plan look real, they involved a man named Arpit (also known as Rishan Reddy), who sells water in Ahmedabad. Arpit pretended to be a senior IAS officer and called Dinesh. Following the script given by Jayantibhai and Kaushik, Arpit told Dinesh that he knew about the so-called Income Tax raid. He even sent photos of cash to make the lie look true.

Arpit told Dinesh, "Rs 300 crore is stuck with the Income Tax department. Please send money to help your friends Kaushik and Jayantibhai to get it back." Trusting them fully, Dinesh transferred Rs 21.65 lakh, thinking he was supporting his friends in a difficult situation. But when he did not get his money back, he understood he had been fooled and filed a police complaint in April.

During the investigation, police found out that Arpit was not an officer at all,  he was a water seller. Arpit confessed that he received Rs 80,000 from Jayantibhai and Kaushik for making these fake calls and tricking Dinesh. Police arrested Arpit on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Jayantibhai and Kaushik Patel are still on the run, and police teams are trying to catch them.