Ranchi Police has arrested Tamim Ansari, accused in the much-hyped Facebook fraud case worth `84 lakh lodged by a Ranchi-based businessman Ajay Kumar Singh, who was cheated recently by some people posing as foreign nationals in the name of appointing him as supplier for a pharmaceutical company for supplying medicinal seeds.
“One person named Tamim Ansari was arrested on Saturday evening while he was trying to make some transactions from Axis Bank in Chennai. He has been sent to jail as of now, and we are planning to take him on remand for further interrogations,” said SP City Jaya Roy. The person appears to be a middleman, who was indulged in swindling of money from different sources, added the City SP.
Roy further added that the arrest was made by a team of Ranchi CID which had been camping in Chennai to arrest the person.
Ajay Kumar Singh of Sarweshwari Nagar on Itki Road lodged an FIR at Pandra police station on August 6 naming Mumbai-based Ashok Modi, Richel Johnson, Gurr Paul and Alfred William, to an FIR. Police however, believed the names given by Singh to be fictitious.
According to Singh, Richel befriended him, posing to be the owner of telecommunication firm Singh Infratel, on Facebook on June 22. He introduced himself as a resident of london and an employee of Classical Pharmaceutical in the UK.
The victim, in his FIR alleged, they gradually indulged him into chatting and started sharing each other’s businesses. later, he allegedly asked Singh to supply a herbal seed- Extract Monodora, for a cancer drug to his company. He said Classical Pharmaceutical would pay him $6500 for each packet of 400 grams of seed, which cost $2750 in India. They also had a meeting in Ranchi and terms and condition of the business was fixed by them.
Richel also put him on to a supplier from Mumbai, Ashok Modi, and some officials of his company. The businessmen fell for the scheme, attracted by the promise of big profits, and ended up procuring 100 packets from Modi for around `80 lakh.
“They told me from where to purchase the seeds and where to be sold out. Gradually, they made me purchase 100 packets of seeds but they turned their mobile phone off when it came to purchase the seeds back and my facebook account was also blocked,” said Singh.
Singh alleged that he even had to take loan of `80 lakh from SBI. For the 100 packets, he deposited `3 lakh, then `55 lakh, another `20 lakh and finally, around `2 lakh in two accounts provided by Ashok.