Two cyber frauds held from Bihar, Rs1.01 crore cash seized
The cheats had been involved in fraudulent activities for the past three years and have duped scores of people to the tune of over ₹5 crore, police said.
The crime branch of Delhi Police on Tuesday said it has arrested two fraudsters from Nalanda district in Bihar for allegedly impersonating an executive of a cement company and duping a south Delhi-based trader of ₹57.50 lakh in the name of supplying cement bags in bulk at heavily discounted rates.
Over ₹1.01 crore in cash was recovered from the house of the prime suspect, apart from 10 cellphones that he used for duping people by offering lucrative schemes. The cheats had been involved in fraudulent activities for the past three years and have duped scores of people to the tune of over ₹5 crore, police said.
“We recovered ₹1.01 crore in cash from the house of the prime accused Chandan Kumar Bhuiyan, 25. Bhuiyan revealed that he earned the money through cyber cheating. He has purchased many properties using the ill-gotten money. Around ₹3 lakh was recovered from Bhuiyan’s arrested aide, Gopal alias Satyam, 25,” a crime branch officer said, seeking anonymity.
The arrests followed investigation into an impersonation, cheating and forgery case registered by the crime branch on December 1 on the complaint of the cement trader, according to Ravindra Singh Yadav, special commissioner of police, crime.
The complainant told police that on September 22, he received a message on his cellphone about purchase of 2,000 or more bags of cement at a preferential rate of ₹300 per bag, which was nearly ₹100 lower than the market price. After three days, the businessman dialled the phone number through which the message was received. The person who answered the call identified himself as Shankar Purohit, senior sales manager of a cement company with its head office in Mumbai, Yadav said.
The person made multiple WhatsApp calls to the businessman and induced him to grab the promotional offer for a limited period. He also shared his bank account details. After being informed that the businessman did not have a GST number, he asked him to obtain the GST number and avail the scheme.
During the phone conversations, the person induced the businessman further by telling him that the revised rate was ₹270 per bag if a minimum of 10,000 cement bags were ordered. Finding the offer profitable, the complainant transferred around ₹57.50 lakh in three instalments, Yadav said.
“After obtaining the GST number in November, the businessman contacted the person and asked for the delivery of cement bags. The man sought time by telling him that he was down with Covid-19. Later, he switched off the phone number. The businessman found it suspicious and contacted the cement company that told him that no such employee worked with them and the company never offered such schemes. Accordingly, the businessman filed a complaint that was converted into a case,” said Yadav.
The investigating team collected details of the bank and the phone number that were used by the fraudster. Through technical surveillance, the location of the suspect was found to be in Nalanda. A team went to Nalanda and nabbed Bhuiyan and Gopal, police said.
“Bhuiyan is a Class 10 drop out, while Gopal has completed his BSc. Bhuiyan learnt the cheating tricks from one Sadik. He used to obtain details of businessmen across India from Google and induced them through various lucrative schemes. Gopal’s job was to arrange cellphones, SIM cards and bank accounts for Bhuiyan. He also used to withdraw the cheated money and gave it to Bhiuiyan, and in return, got 15% of the amount as commission,” Yadav said.