Dhananjay Narayan Thite (45), a trader in photocopy machines and spare parts, was duped to the tune of Rs 16.5 lakh at a leading city hotel today by three conmen posing as salesmen.

According to police, the trio identified as Anil Mukherjee, Ashok Jaiswal and Amal Basu meticulously hatched the plan of duping Thite under the garb of delivering photocopy machines at a 40 per cent discount.

Out of the trio, Mukherjee and Jaiswal met Thite's business partner R Ramesh at Bangalore on June 20 and introduced themselves as salesmen of a company dealing in photocopy machines.

The duo proposed to offer heavy discount on sale of machines. Ramesh promptly informed Thite about the offer in Pune on June 26. Meanwhile, Mukherjee and Jaiswal fixed the amount for a consignment comprising photocopy machines and other related material at Rs 16.5 lakh, the police said.

Among Ramesh and Thite, the former decided to pool in Rs 6.5 lakh whereas the latter gathered Rs 10 lakh from all his resources.

On Thursday, July 8, Mukherjee telephoned Thite at his residence in Shivajinagar and informed him of his arrival at the hotel. The same evening, Thite went to meet Mukherjee at the hotel, where he was staying at room number 838. Meanwhile, Thite received a call from his wife at home saying that Ramesh had also arrived from Bangalore to finalise the deal.

Mukherjee told Thite that the consignment would be home delivered the next day, July 9. He requested Thite to keep Rs 16.5 lakh ready which should be delivered to him at the hotel immediately after it was confirmed that the machinery had been delivered at his residence by his friend Jaiswal.

Today, Thite arrived at the hotel at 9.45 am with the cash kept in a briefcase. He met Mukherjee in his room. At this point, stating that he was accompanied by his partner named Amal Basu and would not like the latter to know about the deal, requested Thite to show the money so that he could count whether the amount was right.

Thite promptly agreed. Mukherjee counted the amount and placed it in a black rexine bag. With no message from home about the delivery of machinery, Thite began to worry. At this point, Mukherjee asked Thite to take back his money in rexine bag and hand it over to Jaiswal when he delivers the photocopy machines. Thite agreed.

However, when Thite was about to leave, Mukherjee advised him to carry the amount in another spacious briefcase.

It was here that keeping Thite engaged in his talks, Mukherjee swiftly exchanged the cash-loaded rexine bag with an identical bag containing blank papers cut and bound to the size of currency notes, the police said.

When Thite reached home, he smelled a rat as the consignment had not arrived. He called up the hotel only to learn that Mukherjee and Basu had checked out. Thite rushed to the hotel and later back home. He then tore open the briefcase given by Mukherjee only to find stacks of blank papers inside the black rexine bag. Thite immediately reported the matter to Bund Garden police.