A young trader from Bhopal, who dreamt of expanding his clothing business through e-commerce, has allegedly been cheated of nearly Rs 19 lakh by two men in Mumbai under the pretext of supplying wholesale men’s wear.

The complainant, Bhavesh Kishore Kumar Sadwani, 22, runs a clothes shop in Bhopal. In his statement to the police, he alleged that he befriended a man named Rehan Siddiqui on Instagram about a year ago. When Sadwani expressed interest in sourcing bulk clothes from Mumbai, Siddiqui assured him of contacts in the trade.