2 held for duping senior citizens of over ₹5 crore in Delhi

The complainants, a woman and her visually impaired husband, who retired as senior statistical officer from the ministry of labour, sold their three flats in Dwarka as they wanted to live with their children who are settled in the US.

The Delhi Police’s economic offences wing (EOW) has arrested two men for allegedly duping an octogenarian couple of nearly ₹5.24 crore after tricking them into investing their lifetime savings into a website development company on the promise of double the returns.

The two alleged accused approached the elderly husband and wife, seeking investment for their recently launched website company. (Picture for representation only)

The arrested men were identified as – Ankit Thakur (29), and Vinod Arya (28), the police said. They got acquainted with the elderly couple while working for a mutual fund company, in which the couple used to invest money, the police said.

The complainants, a woman and her visually impaired husband, who retired as senior statistical officer from the ministry of labour, sold their three flats in Dwarka as they wanted to live with their children who are settled in the United States. It was this money that the duo had duped them of. Police have withheld the names of the complainants, due to their age.

The two alleged accused approached the elderly husband and wife, seeking investment for their recently launched website company. They allegedly promised the couple that their invested money will be doubled in three years, said additional commissioner of police (EOW) RK Singh.

“The couple handed over around ₹5.24 crore, which they had got from the sale of their flats in Dwarka. The two men gave them post-dated cheques as security but they bounced when presented,” said Singh.