The sleuths of Delhi Police West district have arrested a 33-year-old Nigerian for allegedly duping a retired CBI official last year of around Rs 36 lakh in Delhi after posing as a woman on social media.
The accused, identified as Arthur Okeke, presently residing at Chander Vihar was nabbed from the Outer Ring Road on Monday. Police said that the accused was also earlier arrested by the Jaipur police in a cheating case.
According to Monika Bharadwaj, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), West district, in his complaint the former CBI official stated that he became friends with the accused, who posed as a woman named Grace Dennis on Facebook.
"Posing as a woman, the accused Okeke informed him that her mother was suffering from serious aliment and was admitted in a hospital in India, while she was stuck at the Mumbai airport due to some documentation," said the DCP.
"Last August, the man got a phone call from an unknown number and the caller posed himself as a customs officer and asked him to submit some amount for clearance. He deposited Rs 35.80 lakh in nine different bank accounts," said the DCP.
"The contact numbers of the accused were put on surveillance and bank account details were obtained. Through technical specification, the accused was identified as Okele," said the DCP.
"Raids were conducted in Jaipur, Ajmer, Agra, Aligarh and many other places in Delhi, but Okeke could not be traced as he frequently changed his mobile phones and SIM cards. The accused was later nabbed from the Outer Ring Road," the DCP said.
Okeke came to India in 2014. Later, he, along with his accomplices, allegedly started duping people on Facebook. They posed as a girl or woman living abroad, the officer said.
"After befriending people on the Internet and, at times, over phone calls, they would dupe people by seeking money for payment of customs duty on some pretext," said the DCP adding that raids are on to nab the other accused who posed as the customs officer over phone.