The Central region cyber police station has arrested a 46-year-old man from Kandivali in connection with a cyber cheating case of ₹10 lakh. The accused Samrat Chaudhary duped a senior citizen by impersonating his American friend. Soon after his arrest, the police froze ₹8.13 lakh in Chaudhary's bank accounts.
According to the police officials, the complaint Ajay Mehta, a resident of south Mumbai approached the cyber police station after being duped off ₹10 lakh.
In his complaint Mehta stated that a couple of months ago he had received a WhatsApp message from an unknown number with a profile picture of his friend Shreeram Someshwar who stays in the United States. The imposter then posing as Someshwar requested ₹10 lakh from Mehta urgently and assured him that he would soon return it, believing him Mehta transferred the money.
In a couple of days, Mehta realised his mistake. When he asked for money and the imposter replied with a photograph of a gun. Mehta immediately called Someshwar only to realise that he had never asked for money.
On Mehta's complaint, the cyber police registered an offence under the Indian Penal Code sections for cheating by personation (419) and cheating (420) criminal intimidation by an anonymous communication (507) along with section 66C (identity theft) and 66D (cheating by personation using computer resources) of the Information Technology Act and began their investigation.
The police then managed to track down Chaudhary with the help of the money trail and the mobile number he used. The police have frozen his bank accounts in which he allegedly transferred the money.
