NEW DELHI, Feb 6: The Delhi Police arrested a cyber fraudster who allegedly duped an IIT Delhi student of Rs 4.33 lakh by placing him under digital arrest, an official said on Thursday.
The accused, identified as Madan Lal (29), was traced to Chennai and taken into custody.
“On November 16 of last year, a fourth-year engineering student at IIT Delhi received a call from someone claiming to be from a courier service. The caller falsely informed him that a suspicious parcel in his name was being shipped from Mumbai to Beijing. When the student denied any knowledge of the parcel, the caller advised him to report the issue to the police and transferred the call to an alleged officer at Gamdevi Police Station, Mumbai,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southwest) Surendra Choudhary said in a press statement.
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He further mentioned that the fraudsters impersonating police and Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials, accused the student of being involved in criminal activities.
They threatened him with arrest, claiming a warrant had been issued in his name. Exploiting his fear, the scammers coerced him into transferring money to various bank accounts to prove his innocence.
The victim transferred Rs 4.33 lakh from November 16 to November 18 through multiple online transactions.
“When he later realized he had been deceived, he lodged a police complaint. An FIR was registered, and further investigation was taken up,” said the DCP.
He mentioned that by tracking the money trail and analysing digital evidence, investigators discovered that a foreign number from Hong Kong had been used to contact the complainant.
Further inquiries revealed that a portion of the defrauded money was transferred to a bank account linked to one Tejpal Sharma from Rai Singh Nagar in Rajasthan.
“Sharma was apprehended and interrogated. He admitted to handing over his ATM card to his friend Gagandeep Singh, who had then changed the account’s registered mobile number. Investigators traced Gagandeep, who revealed that he had provided the account to his associate, Bajrang. The team later apprehended Madan Lal from Chennai,” said the DCP, adding that during interrogation, Madan Lal confessed to the crime.
Investigators found that he withdrew the cheated money from ATMs, converted it into US dollars and cryptocurrency, and then sold them to a Chinese national at higher rates, receiving payments in bank accounts. (PTI)
