Cuttack: Two persons, including a 35-year-old Nigerian national, have been arrested from Delhi on charges of defrauding a Puri girl of Rs 41 lakh, a senior official of Crime Branch’s Cyber Police said Monday.
The Nigerian man was identified as Nawabyuje Chukwadi, while the other accused is Piyush Arya, 22, a resident of Babarpur in Delhi.
“A few debit and credit cards, forged identity cards and cellphones have been seized from their possession,” the official said, adding that the duo has been sent to judicial custody after their bail pleas were rejected by sub-divisional judicial magistrate (SDJM) court in Puri.
Police suspect the duo has a well-oiled network across the country and that they target girls from affluent families. “We’ll investigate the case from all possible angles, besides trying to establish the other aides of the accused,” the official added.
Briefing the case details, the official said, it was in early 2017 when the victim from Puri came in contact with a man in social media who introduced himself as David Oscar of England. “A few days later, the text exchanges advanced into telephonic conversions and they decided to meet,” the official said.
The accused decided to dupe the girl on her birthday, in July. “The fraudster said he wanted to gift a laptop, ornaments and 35,000 in pounds to the girl on her birthday and that it would soon land at her place via courier. A few days later, the victim received a phone call from a courier boy informing that the gifts were stuck at the Delhi airport and that she needs to pay to get the clearance,” the official said.
The victim initially deposited Rs 10 lakh into the bank account, the details of which was shared by the courier boy. “In phases, she deposited Rs 41 lakh into the same bank account within 10 days,” the official said.
The victim, however, grew suspicious when neither the gifts landed at her place nor the courier boy took her calls.
It was in August that the victim, backed with all documents, approached the Cyber Police which registered a case (17/18) under Sections 419, 420, 468, 471 and 120B of the IPC and relevant Sections of the IT Act, including that of 66D before swinging into action.
During the investigation, Cyber Police inspector Anil Anand traced the accused to Delhi and a police team nabbed the duo from the national capital.
PNN