Nagpur: A 52-year-old Nagpur resident was duped of Rs 18.5 lakh by a man who claimed to know his close friend, police said on Tuesday. Maninder Singh Jabbal (52), the complainant, received a WhatsApp call on November 16 from a man who identified himself as Bagga Singh from Canada, said an official of the Yashodara Nagar police station.
The caller told him that he was a close friend of Jabbal's friend who was then attending a wedding in Canada. He also said that his mother was admitted to a hospital in Nagpur, and requested Jabbal to make some payments online urgently to cover the medical expenses.
The caller assured Jabbal that he would immediately transfer money to his bank account. A few minutes later, Jabbal received a call from another man, who claimed to be a bank executive and told him that money was being transferred but it was taking time as the bank's server was down.
Jabbal trusted the caller who had identified himself as Bagga Singh, and transferred a total of Rs 18.5 lakh as instructed to various bank accounts.
Only later he realized that this was a scam, but by that time `Bagga Singh' had become inaccessible.
A case was registered under sections 419, 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code and relevant sections of the Information Technology Act and further probe was on, the official said.
