Chopper cheat in net at Calcutta

A cellphone store employee was arrested late on Thursday on charges of cheating a New Town resident of Rs 58,000 by promising her a helicopter ride from Guwahati to Shillong, police said.

The ride usually costs Rs 1,500.

The complainant had planned a vacation in the Northeast and while searching the Net for helicopter rides she came across a phone number, put up by Sonu Kumar Mondal, an officer of the Bidhannagar commissionerate said.

Mondal, 30, a resident of Sevak Baidya Street near Maddox Square, had introduced himself as a tour operator with “vast experience” in organising “tailor-made vacations” , the officer said. “He apparently told the woman that he had helped several Calcuttans book helicopter services all over the country and managed to win her trust.”