Greed for easy money lands Bengaluru man in cyber fraud trap
Lucknow police rescues bizman and his friends from captivity, nabs three kidnappers, mastermind at large.
Greed got a Bengaluru-based businessman and his friend from Kanpur trapped by young cyber frauds of Lucknow. The men coerced the businessman to ask for ₹1 crore from a friend. However, when he was forced to ask for more money his friend got suspicious and he called the police.
The Bengaluru businessman came to Lucknow on March 22 and went to strike a deal with supposed Hawala operators in the greed of earning 10% for parking cash in his account. However, the businessman and his friend from Kanpur were held hostage in a car. Police on Monday rescued the businessman Manjunath and his Kanpur friend, Sayed Asar Ahmad, after more than 24 hours.
DCP, South, Nipun Agrawal, said that on Monday, based on informers’ inputs, police teams were conducting checks and intercepted a car on suspicion. The accused and victims were found in one such vehicle.
Three youths involved in Hawala trading were nabbed by a police team of Sarojini Nagar with the help of surveillance. Those arrested were identified as Akash Yadav, 21, Pradeep Pal, 20, and Adarsh Dubey, 21, all residents of Para and students of a college. Their aide Vivek Yadav, also of Para escaped arrest. A firearm, the car used in the kidnapping and cash have been recovered from them.
ACP Vikas Pandey said that accused Adarsh Dubey is a BA first year student while Akash has done ITI from Aliganj after passing Inter and Pradeep Pal has failed to pass Inter exam. “The master mind of these accused, Vivek Yadav, is absconding. The car is registered in the name of Adarsh’s relative,” he said.
Trapped in a car
Manjunath told the police that he saw the page of Sai Hawala Traders on Instagram. On contacting the number found on it, he spoke to a youth named Raju. Raju told him that they make people invest in crypto currency. He also said that they give 10% commission on transferring hawala money to white money. Manjunath fell for this scheme and he came to Lucknow getting convinced by his words.
He went to meet the accused near Shakuntala University along with his friend Syed, a resident of Kanpur’s Beconganj. “When the victims reached gate number one by Ola, Manjunath was asked to meet at gate number two where both of them were held hostage in the car,” said the police.
How the police got wind
DCP, South, Nipun Agrawal, said that one Sayed Danish of Bengaluru informed the police regarding his friend Manjunath going missing, while visiting Lucknow for business-related work. Manjunath’s family later contacted Lucknow Police and lodged a complaint through e-mail.
According to the DCP, South, on March 22 evening, Manjunath’s wife, Rekha, and their family friend, Lohit BG, received a call from an unknown mobile number. The caller said that they had kidnapped Manjunath and if ₹1 crore was not paid, they would kill him.
“As soon as information was received, the police team began looking for the suspects. Footage of CCTV cameras installed at the airport was searched. Also, Manjunath’s route map was seen. After tracking Manjunath’s car, they reached Hotel Marriott in Gomti Nagar where he stayed. The footage made it clear that he had reached the hotel safely. Later, with the help of informers and surveillance, the trio accused were held,” said the DCP.
Accused ran Insta page ‘Sai Hawala Traders’
Sarojini Nagar inspector Rajdev Prajapati said that initial investigation revealed that the accused ran a Hawala page on Instagram in the name of Sai Hawala Traders.
According to the police, people also used to be lured to earn money by investing in the name of crypto currency. They used to call people to Lucknow by luring them into talks and promising to transfer commission for parking Hawala money into their account. They lured victims with a 10% commission on the total sum for turning black money into white.
The accused told the police that people used to come to the mentioned place in greed of money and were kidnapped at gunpoint. To avoid suspicion of family members, the kidnappers used to make video and normal calls on WhatsApp in the name of investing money in business. After that, if the family members did not agree, they used to demand money by threatening to kill the abductees.
Speaking Hindi evoked suspicion
According to Manjunath’s wife, when her husband called her and his friends, he spoke in Hindi instead of Kannada, which led to suspicion. Further, Manjunath was made to call his friend on WhatsApp to ask for money.Manjunath’s friend agreed to send ₹30lakh and then ₹50 lakh on the victim’s request, but the friend got suspicious when Manjunath asked for ₹1 crore a third time. The friend contacted the police and asked for help, the police said.
