The south region cyber police have arrested a 40-year-old man from New Delhi for allegedly cheating a 72-year-old share trader from south Mumbai of Rs 2.2 crore.
According to the police, the fraud began in April 2024 when the wanted accused contacted the victim, claiming that his late father’s pending provident fund of Rs 1.68 lakh was due. The caller asked the victim to pay Rs 30,000 as a processing fee. Believing the offer to be genuine, the elderly trader followed the instructions and eventually lost Rs 2.2 crore.
A case was registered on April 18, and a team led by senior inspector Nandkumar Gopale under the supervision of DCP (Cyber) Purushottam Karad began the investigation.
“We have arrested Umashankar Agarwal from New Delhi. He provided his four bank accounts to the wanted accused, and a total of Rs 23.1 lakh was deposited in these accounts. The money belonged to the victim. The accused was promised a 2% commission on every transaction. So far, we have frozen around 50 bank accounts linked to the case,” said Bhoye.
Police added that Agarwal had rented his bank accounts to a wanted accused named Rajesh Sharma, who instructed him to open the accounts and kept the debit card, passbook, and cheque book with him.
“In April 2024, the complainant, a resident of Nana Chowk, received a call from a woman identifying herself as Ritika Sharma. She informed him that his father’s PF amount was pending and that he needed to pay Rs 30,000 as a processing fee to claim it. The complainant transferred the money. Over the next year, the wanted accused kept asking for more payments under various pretexts, and the victim ended up transferring over Rs 2.2 crore across 48 transactions,” said a police officer.
The police continue to trace Rajesh Sharma and other associates involved in the fraud, while efforts are underway to recover the stolen money.
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