Six people were arrested for allegedly duping a man from the national capital of around Rs 2.50 lakh by claiming an international courier that was being probed by Mumbai Police was booked in his name.

According to the Delhi Police on Sunday, the fraudsters asked him to make the payment to avoid legal hassle. The accused were identified as 24 year old Vishal Joshi, an engineer from Delhi, and five other graduates including 24 year old Ansh and 23 year old Samarth from Haryana, 24 year old Pranjal Kumar Sahni, from Uttar Pradesh, 29 year old Satender Dhaka from Madhya Pradesh, and 26 year old Vedant Prabhkar Nagarkar from Maharashtra.

“On April 29, complainant Deepanshu Vaid of Vasundhra Enclave here reported that he received a call from an unknown number, with the caller impersonating as an employee of an international courier of Mumbai branch,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (east) Apoorva Gupta said.

The caller claimed that a parcel containing passports, bank cards, clothes, a laptop, some cash and drugs had been booked using Vaid’s Aadhaar card and phone number. “Later, the call was allegedly transferred to Mumbai Cyber Police. Under the pretext of saving him from legal entanglement, the caller cheated him of Rs 2.49 lakh,” the DCP said.

Investigation revealed that Vaid’s payment was credited to the account of a private bank in Rohtak, Haryana belonging to Ansh. Between April 29 and April 30, Rs 3.20 crores was credited to Ansh’s account and later transferred to other accounts, she said. “The bank was informed on April 30 after police received the complaint, and Rs 38.23 lakh was frozen in the account,” said the DCP.

Ansh and his associate Samarth were apprehended from Mayur Vihar here, she added. Ansh disclosed that he and Samarth had lost Rs 30 lakhs in cryptocurrency trading, after which they came in contact with Pranjal Sahni, who promised the duo profits if they provided their bank account details, police said.