82-year-old Ludhiana resident falls prey to swindler posing as NRI relative, loses ₹7L

Complainant a resident of BRS Nagar, Ludhiana, received a phone call from a person posing as his nephew, who lives in Canada, saying he had been involved in a quarrel at a nightclub and needed money for a lawyer

An octogenarian city resident lost ₹7 lakh to fraudsters posing as his non-resident Indian (NRI) nephew.

An 82-year-old Ludhiana resident was duped of ₹7 lakh by a swindler posing as NRI relative. (iStockphoto)

The complainant, Ajit Singh, 82, a resident of BRS Nagar B-block, received a phone call from a person posing as his nephew Jassa, who is settled in Canada. The caller said he had been involved in a quarrel at a nightclub and needed money to hire a lawyer.

Beware of ‘nephews’ and ‘cousins’ living abroad. (HT)

Another imposter, posing as the said lawyer, shared an account number and IFSC Code for the payment and the complainant ended up transferring ₹7 lakh into the account. On later contacting his nephew, however, the complainant realised that he had been duped.

Inspector Satbir Singh of the Sarabha Nagar police station said a case under sections 420 (cheating), 210 (B) (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code was registered against the accused.

Other news in brief:

Thieves target Machhiwara house, decamp with ₹50k, gold jewellery

Ludhiana

Thieves targeted a house in the Machhiwara neighbourhood and decamped with cash and gold jewellery. In his complaint, the house owner, Jeeta Singh of Bairsal Kalan, said he and his family members were visiting their relatives in Kapurthala over the last weekend, when the incident allegedly took place. The accused presumably entered the house by breaking the locks either late on Sunday or Monday. The incident, meanwhile, came to light on Tuesday when the family returned home to find the locks broken and the house ransacked.Police have registered an FIR on the complaint of the house owner and initiated an investigation.

The complainant said that ₹50,000 and gold jewellery including bracelet, earrings, and other valuables were missing. Assistant sub-inspector (ASI) Pargat Singh, investigating officer, said a case under sections 457 (lurking, house trespass) and 380 (theft) of the Indian Penal Code has been registered against unidentified accused at the Machhiwara police station. The ASI added that police are currently working on tracing the accused and close circuit television cameras installed in the vicinity are being checked.

Ludhiana In a major respite, no fresh case of Covid was detected in the district during the last 24 hours, as per the bulletin released by the district health department on Wednesday. There were 15 active cases in the district on Wednesday.

Ludhiana Police’s drug disposal team destroyed drugs seized in a total of 106 cases. Speaking of the same, additional deputy commissioner of police Rupinder Kaur Sra said 1.1 kg heroin, 1.63 quintal poppy husk, 6 kg ganja, 7.97 quintal charas, 2.71 quintal narcotic powder, 1 lakh banned pills, capsules. The drugs were destroyed by a specially-empowered district-level drug disposal committee after obtaining orders from the trial court.

Ludhiana Police arrested a security guard of a steel metal parts manufacturing unit for allegedly stealing 50 kg iron scrap from the unit in Koom Kalan area. The team recovered the stolen material from the accused, identified as Surinder Singh of village Manewal.htc