The UP Special Task Force
(STF) on Saturday, June 15, arrested a Nigerian national and his Indian aide
who duped about 100 people, including a renowned female doctor in Lucknow of
around ? 70 crore through an on-line fraud.
The STF officials said the
fraudsters identified as Amara Chukwu Roland and his aide Homeri of
north-eastern state Manipur, took over ?1 core from the doctor on the pretext
of assisting her in organising health camps.
Senior superintendent of
police (SSP), STF Abhishek Singh, who confirmed the arrest said the accused had
swindled Rs 70 crore from about 100 persons across India.
He said although they kept
changing their locations frequently, the STF team arrested them from their
Delhi hideout after tracking down their present location.
The STF from Charbagh
railway station were tipped off about the miscreants’ arrival to the city by
train and nabbed them as they deboarded at the station.
The SSP said the STF team
was tracking them since the female doctor had lodged an FIR against them on
June 10 for cheating her of ?1 crore in the name of offering her financial aid
to organise free health camps.
The Nigerian became
friends with the woman through Facebook by posing as an England-based
cardiologist Dr Steve George and offered to help in social work done by her.
The female doctor often
posted about free health camps and other social work done by her. The
fraudsters used the same information to dupe the woman doctor and got
transferred money in 26 different bank accounts during the past four months on
the pretext of getting custom and other government clearance to transfer funds
for social work.
“He befriended
the woman doctor on Facebook and offered to help in social work. Later, he
claimed to have sent her jewellery as gift but it was seized by the custom
officials at the airport. Rolland asked the woman to loan her Rs 2.5 lakh to be
paid as fine for getting it released. He asked her to deposit the money to the
account of Hormi KC in Delhi. Rolland kept seeking money from the woman on
various pretexts and this way took Rs 1 crore from her which were deposited in
different bank accounts of the miscreant in the past four months,” said SSP STF.
The SSP said
the duo confessed during interrogation that they had swindled around ?70 crore
from at least 25 people in the past one year.
Explaining
their modus operandi, STF officials said that Nigerians operating such gangs
befriend unemployed northeast Indians as many of them have similar names and
then lure them to join the gangs by offering money. Nigerians then use bank
accounts of these natives to get the money deposited from the victims.
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