B.Tech. graduate arrested for duping businessman of ₹22 lakh in forex scam

Police said the accused allegedly helped fraudsters by activating a SIM card and sharing OTPs used to create a WhatsApp account that lured the victim.

Published on: Jun 7, 2026, 04:08:15 IST

By Debashish Karmakar

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A 35-year-old unemployed B.Tech. graduate from Hisar’s Sector-4 was arrested from his residence for allegedly duping a businessman of foreign currency worth ₹22 lakh in a fake currency exchange deal, police said on Saturday.

The victim was allegedly tricked into bringing US $20,000 and £3,000 to a meeting in Gurugram, where the suspect disappeared with the money. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The suspect was arrested by the Sector 43 crime branch unit on Friday. Investigators said he assisted fraudsters by activating a SIM card provided by them on his mobile phone for ₹1,000 and later shared OTPs used to activate WhatsApp on another device. The WhatsApp account was then used to contact the victim and lure him into a business deal.

Police said the suspect also received ₹50,000 from one of the suspects, arrested on February 13, for providing the OTPs.

According to the victim, he received a WhatsApp call on February 2 from a person claiming to be interested in buying foreign currency before travelling abroad and was asked to meet at Unitech Business Zone in Sector-50.

A senior police officer said the victim reached the location with US $20,000 and £3,000, where the techie appeared using a fake name. “He kept the victim engaged in discussing a business deal and took the foreign currency, assuring that he was soon bringing cash from his car to hand it over to him,” the officer said.

“The victim kept waiting, but when the suspect didn’t return after several minutes, he rang on his phone to find it switched off when he finally realised that he had been cheated,” the officer added.

An FIR for forgery and cheating was registered at Sector 50 police station on February 3. Police said the suspect was remanded in custody for four days to identify three other gang members and recover the duped foreign currency.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Debashish Karmakar
Debashish Karmakar is a principal correspondent with the Hindustan Times, Gurugram bureau. He has a vast journalistic experience of almost 14 years of covering crime, court, power, transport, administration, weather and other beats while working across various organisations. He has been covering Gurugram, Faridabad, Nuh, Palwal and other districts of southern Haryana for more than four and a half years. He has produced several breaking and exclusive stories while reporting from the ground where he maintains a strong presence on a daily basis. He writes news articles which are hard-hitting and accurate. With his strong bureaucratic sources, he frequently writes stories to expose the failure of the system forcing authorities to take necessary course-corrective steps. Besides crime, important convictions and court orders, he also writes on human-angle stories, on power issues and challenges faced by the residents on a daily basis in Gurugram and neighbouring areas. In the past, he worked for media houses like The Times of India, where he extensively reported on important government matters and daily proceedings at the Patna High Court. He has also worked in the electronic media and had done ground coverage on the Kedarnath deluge that wrecked Uttarakhand in 2013.Read More

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