3 arrested for duping man of ₹70 lakh in guise of insurance cover in Gurugram

The suspects had cheated more than 100 people across the country of several crores of rupees, said investigators

Three suspects were arrested on charges of cheating a 35-year-old city resident of ₹70 lakh over a period of five years in the name of giving him insurance cover and personal loan by impersonating, on separate occasions, officials of a private bank, the ombudsman and the central government’s finance ministry, police said on Wednesday.

The trio, aged between 30 years to 35 years, were arrested from different locations in Delhi on Tuesday. (Representational image)

Police identified the suspects as Jitendra Kumar Panda of Saraswati Vihar, Pradeep Kumar of Rani Bagh in north Delhi and Devendra Tyagi of Ghaziabad.

The trio, aged between 30 years to 35 years, were arrested from different locations in Delhi on Tuesday.

Investigators said the victim, a top executive of real estate firm in Sector 44, had got an FIR registered against unidentified suspects under sections 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code and 66D (cheating by personation using communication device or computer resource) of Information Technology Act at the Cybercrime police station (east) on September 20.

According to the complaint, the man said he was cheated of ₹12 lakh in May-June 2018 by unidentified persons on the pretext of providing him an insurance cover and loan.

The second time, the suspects impersonated the insurance ombudsman to cheat him of ₹38 lakh in June 2019 and again of ₹20 lakh between September 2022 and April 2023 by impersonating Union finance ministry officials.

Vipin Ahlawat, assistant commissioner of police (cybercrime), said in the course of investigation, it came to light that they had cheated more than 100 persons across the country of several crores of rupees.

“There are six cybercrime cases registered against Panda and Kumar in Maharashtra, Uttarakhand and Chhattisgarh. Tyagi also has a case against him in Chhattisgarh,” he said.

The ACP said that they used a voice changing device to sound like a female while talking to a victim over the phone.

“We have recovered the voice changing device and five mobile phones used in the crime by the arrested suspects,” he said.

Investigators said Tyagi and Kumar used to interact with the victims over the phone posing as women while Panda used to receive the money in his account.

Police said Panda kept 10% of the defrauded amount received in his bank account as commission and handed over the rest of the money to the duo. Police said the trio have been take on remand for detailed interrogation to recover money cheated from the victim. Further investigation is underway in the case, police said.