In a major breakthrough, Dehradun police have busted a swindling racket by arresting on Wednesday two persons, including a Nigerian, on the charge of swindling around Rs11 lakh out of a woman.
The accused have been identified as Divine, Nigerian national, who is currently living at Mahavir Enclave in Delhi and Mohammad Zakir, native of Nihal Vihar, Nagloi, New Delhi.
In the course of interrogation, the accused duo said that they used to call up people from mobile numbers collected through forged documents and duped them of money, arousing their greed for a large amount awaiting them.
The police recovered eight mobile phones, 61 forged SIM cards and cash of Rs50,000 from their possession. The accused Divine said that he had been working in a group comprising some Nigerians, including women, now based in Delhi. They collected forged SIM cards aside from getting hold of some forged bank accounts.
Acting on the complaint lodged by the woman who was probably their latest victim, SSP Sadanand Date pressed into operation SOG and local police of Clemnt Town to crack the case. Date said that Funchowk Bagmo, native of Arunachal Pradesh who is currently living in Clement Town registered a complaint at police station on August 9. She stated that she had been swindled of Rs11.75 lakh by an unidentified woman who posed as an employee of Indira Gandhi International Airport.
The accused had told her on July 8, 2016 that a parcel sent in her name from England had been lying with them. According to the complainant, the accused had said that following scanning it was found that Rs3 crore in pound currency was kept in the parcel.
To have it released, she was asked to pay a penalty amounting to Rs11,75,500 in a particular SBI account number. The complainant said that she had deposited the amount as asked of her. later, when the complainant inquired about the same she found she had been cheated. She said she had repeatedly tried to contact the woman who had called on her but to no avail.
The woman complainant later registered a complaint and subsequently, a case under sections 420/506 of IPC was registered against unidentified persons in Clement Town police station on August 9.