Four held for duping retired scientist of ₹1.29 crore
Uttar Pradesh STF arrested four for duping retired scientist Shukdev Nandi of ₹1.29 crore by faking a police call regarding a scam.
Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) on Saturday arrested four members of a gang here for duping a retired scientist of ₹1.29 crore by digitally “arresting” him, an official note on Saturday.
The gang targeted Shukdev Nandi, 72, who retired as a scientist from the Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI), Bareilly. It made a WhatsApp call to Nandi, displaying a fake caller ID with the Bengaluru City Police logo. They falsely claimed that a SIM card linked to his Aadhaar was used in a human trafficking and job scam, and that illegal funds had been deposited into his account, the note said.
A police official said one of the fraudsters identified himself as CBI officer Dayanayak. Over the next three days, Nandi was coerced into transferring ₹1.29 crore into multiple bank accounts.
Realising that he had been duped, an FIR was registered at the Bareilly cybercrime police station on June 26 under sections 318(4), 319(2), 308(6), 61(2), and 111 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) along with Section 66D of the IT Act. Following this, the STF was assigned to assist with the investigation, the press release stated.
Acting on a tip-off, the STF team arrested four suspects on Friday near a flyover in Gomti Nagar Extension. Those arrested were identified as Shyam Kumar (Sitapur), Rajneesh Dwivedi and Sudhir Kumar Chaurasia (Gonda), and Mahendra Pratap Singh alias Chandan Singh (Balrampur). All were currently living in Lucknow.
STF officials said that efforts were underway to identify and arrest other key players in the racket.
