The West Region Cyber police have arrested two persons from Kolkata for allegedly duping a MBA graduate woman of ₹15 lakh. The accused persons identified as Mohammad Ishtiaq Ansari, 32, and his aide Jaffar Ali Shaikh, 32, lured her into trap by promising her job in Canada. The accused persons are suspected to have duped several others similarly, said a police officer.
In November last year, Vina Dedhiya, 38, a resident for Santacruz received a Facebook (FB) post in which a high salary job in Canada was promised. Dedhiya who was looking for a job contacted them and asked about the job. One Riya received her call and asked her to pay ₹20,000 as registration charges. Dedhiya believed them and paid the money and also paid another ₹20,000 for her sister who lost her job recently due to the pandemic.
Soon after the payment was made, Riya stopped entertaining her calls and also disconnected their number, said police. Dedhiya who was in dire need of job then contacted on another number given in FB post and asked about the job, this time the call was received by one Arnav Malhotra who asked her to contact one Henry, it was Shaikh who was indeed talking to the woman posing as Malhotra and Henry, said officials.
Since then Shaikh made her to pay various charges including for visa formalities of both the sisters and of their son, charges for examination and so on, till April Dedhiya ended up paying ₹15 lakh to the fraudsters.
Later Shaikh claimed that due to pandemic they can't directly go to Canada and told her that they could go via Singapore only and again demanded ₹8 lakh for the three. She had already borrowed money from her father and sold her jewellery hoping to secure a job in Canada, said a police officer. This time she doubted them and approached the police instead.
The West Region Cyber police station registered an offence of cheating, impersonation and under the relevant sections of Information Technology act and began their investigation.
"We sought the accounts details in which the money had been transferred and sent our team to Kolkata, they developed the information locally and nabbed the two from Kolkata. The two are operating from last over a year, prima facie looking at transaction details of their accounts it seems that they have duped several others similarly across the country," said Sangita Shinde, senior inspector of West Region Cyber police.
The police took their transit remand and produced them in Bandra court on Friday which remanded them to police custody till Tuesday, said officials.
