The police on Thursday arrested an employee of a reputed company manufacturing customised vehicles in Lalru for allegedly duping three digital payment agents of ₹3 lakh to meet his need of betting on IPL matches through online gaming apps.
The accused has been identified as Ashu Kaushik, a native of New Delhi who was presently living in the Dharamgarh in Lalru. He was booked under Sections 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating) of the IPC on the complaint of one of the victims, Jatinder Kumar of Dappar village in Lalru.
The accused was produced in the court and sent to police remand for a day.
During the preliminary investigation, it came to light that apart from Jatinder, the accused has duped two more persons — one in Lalru and another in Ambala. The trio was duped between May 14 and 17.
Sharing details of the case, Dera Bassi ASP Darpan Ahluwalia said that the accused was hooked to online cricket apps MPL and Gamezy.
She said that the accused, who was working in the company as a supervisor, had lost all his savings due to his habit of betting on IPL matches. As the company had prohibited the use of mobile phones inside the unit, he sneaked in his subordinates phone and registered on the apps through his PAN card.
{{/usCountry}}She said that the accused, who was working in the company as a supervisor, had lost all his savings due to his habit of betting on IPL matches. As the company had prohibited the use of mobile phones inside the unit, he sneaked in his subordinates phone and registered on the apps through his PAN card.
{{/usCountry}}As he kept losing money on the online gaming platform, he targeted the digital payment agents, who facilitate transfer of money, particularly of migrants.
The accused had approached one of the agents, Jatinder Kumar, and asked him to transfer ₹65,000 in different accounts, which he used to operate, on the pretext of the making digital payment to the outsourced staff of his company, the police official said.
Ahluwalia said that Ashu used to convince the digital payment agents that he is responsible for paying the salaries to the workers and he would return the money to them.
Similarly, he had duped Harry and another digital payment agent in Ambala of around ₹2.35 lakh.
Jatinder and the other two complainants stated to the police that he won their trust by showing them his identity card and other company documents.
The police official said that after getting the money transferred in his account, Ashu would escape on the pretext of answering nature’s call and would switch off his phones.
During the investigation of Kidney scam in April at Dera Bassi Hospital, it came to light that the donor, Kapil Kumar, was a betting addict. It was learnt that the donor, after collecting ₹5 lakh cash-in-lieu of transplant, gave the money to one of his friends for betting on cricket matches.