Though she dreamed big, BPO employee Arti Gupta came from a very modest family who live in a rented accommodation in Tilak Nagar in Delhi. Arti has a younger sister and brother and her father is a taxi driver.
Gupta's arrest came as a shock for the family that was preparing for her
engagement ceremony this week.
Her parents claimed innocence and said their daughter does not know any Neelabh Shankar, Gupta's alleged accomplice and companion.
Her mother Geeta Gupta said, "Arti does not know any Neelabh. We often received gifts and when I asked my daughter she said it was incentives by the BPO. We are poor and stay in a rented house. My husband is out for 15 days in a month with passengers. We hardly manage to make two ends meet and such harassment has shaken us."
She added, "My daughter is about to get married and start a new life. The company is trying to defame her."
How they spent it It was an online flight booking from Delhi to Goa that spoiled the game for the accused.
Australian citizen Steve Melnikoff, who was duped of a total Rs 2.38 lakh, suspected some illegal transactions on his credit card and raised an alarm.
The tickets were booked in the name of Arti Gupta and Neelabh Shanker and Melnikoff gave these names in his complaint to Convergys.
Other accused in the case Shalin Sachdeva and Manish Bhatia also undertook frequent trips to Bhubaneswar and Ranchi from July to October last year. Vinod Asrani from Make My Trip has also joined the police probe. He got suspicious when the same credit cards were being used and he alerted the card holder.
With several credit card details in their hand, the accused booked five-star hotels and travelled in luxury cars. Apart from expensive clothes and electronic goods, the bill for online flower purchase was above Rs 70,000 and cakes worth Rs 45,000 were purchased in three months.