Bhubaneswar: Three notorious cybercriminals, including two Nigerians, have been arrested from New Delhi for duping a resident here of Rs 2.65 crore on the promise of high returns on investment in saffron business, Crime Branch (CB) sources said, Saturday.
The accused were identified as Arati Gautam, Christoper Chizobam alias Chizobam Krist and Nnamdi Stanley Mbamalu alias German, said CB inspector Bibhu Ranjan Sundaray.
About the crackdown, Sundaray said a resident of the Capital city approached them February 26 this year alleging that he has been defrauded by crooks who contacted him through social media.
Claiming himself as a former Odisha cadre IAS officer, one of the fraudsters approached the victim on Facebook in December 2023 and said that he was working at the World Bank in Washington DC, Sundaray said quoting the victim’s complaint.
“During the course of social media conversations, the fraudster sent an email to the victim and offered him to join a project of supplying saffron to the World Bank headquarters. He asked the victim to contact the World Bank procurement department via email to express interest in the project. The fraudster then introduced the victim to a supplier, who pretended as a Regional Manager at Organics Merchandise, a marketing agent for saffron farmers in India,” the CB inspector said.
“They started the business with initial supply of 10 kg saffron for testing, and later went up to 110 kg as per the fake purchase order from the World Bank. The victim paid Rs 2,65,15,940 through multiple transactions to various bank accounts maintained in India. When the fraudster demanded more money, the victim realised the fraud and approached the Cyber Crime police station,” he said.
Based on the complaint, a case (10/2024) was registered under Sections 419, 420, 465, 467, 468, 471, 120B and 34 of the IPC, and 66D of the IT Act, 2000 and a probe was launched.
A team, led by Sundaray, conducted the probe and managed to nab Arati in New Delhi. “Subsequently, the two Nigerians were arrested,” he said.
Six mobile phones, two laptops, 10 SIM cards, 10 bank passbooks, two debit cards and one Aadhaar card were recovered from them.
During the probe, the CB learnt that Arati opened bank accounts in her name and in the names of others and shared these accounts with Christoper, who used them to transfer the fraudulently obtained money. Christoper was involved in collection of mule accounts to facilitate the receipt of the stolen money. Nnamdi withdrew the cash from ATMs and handed it over another Nigerian.
The CB learnt from the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP) of I4C that the gang was involved in a series of cyber frauds across the country. “Their accounts have been involved in around 94 cases covering 10 states across the nation,” the CB inspector said.
PNN