Indian police have detained a mother and daughter accused of fraudulently posing as shipyard owners to sell vessels.
Ragini Khandelwal, 52, and her 22-year-old daughter Mansi were arrested after two alleged victims approached Maharashtra state home minister Anil Deshmukh.
Businessman Sushant Shelatkar claimed he paid INR 13m ($179,000) to the pair for a tug and a barge in Mumbai in 2020, the Times of India reported.
The accused are said to have cheated multiple people, including a politician, by showing the hull of a vessel they had no connection to.
Shelatkar's wife Padma alleged the duo have cheated others of INR 140m by "selling" them the same hull.
The businessman said in a complaint to police that he made an enquiry with a website in June 2018 about tug and barge manufacturers.
"After two days, I got a call from a man identified as Amir Khan. He told me that one Khandelwal, who was known to him, is involved in shipping vessel business," he said.
In October 2020, Shelatkar was called for a meeting with the accused, who claimed they were directors of a company called Shree Tirupati Balaji, which owned a yard in Kalyan.
The pair showed him a ship and convinced him of their expertise in building vessels.
He paid the money and later realised he had been cheated.
