Man arrested for duping city bizman using ‘drugs-in-parcel’ modus

Man from Rajasthan arrested for duping businessman of ₹8.5 lakh by threatening him over drugs in a parcel; remanded to 4 days of police custody.

MUMBAI: The Oshiwara police arrested a man from Rajasthan on Sunday for allegedly duping a businessman of ₹8.5 lakh. The man reportedly threatened the businessman by claiming that there were drugs in a parcel addressed to him.

HT Image

On February 7, according to Oshiwara police officers, the complainant received a call on his mobile phone from someone claiming to be from the customer service department of the FedEx courier company.

The caller informed the complainant that they had received a parcel in his name containing drugs. They claimed to have informed the police about the matter. Subsequently, the complainant received a call from an individual purporting to be a police officer. This impersonator stated that an FIR had been registered in the complainant’s name and requested access to verify bank transaction details. When the complainant denied involvement, the impostor advised transferring money to a different account, citing the risk of the original account being compromised and used for further illicit activities.

After the complainant agreed and provided the fraudster with his details, ₹8.5 lakh was debited from his account within minutes. Upon realising that he had been cheated, the complainant approached the police and registered a case against an unidentified fraudster under section 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code and sections of the Information Technology Act.

The police tracked the bank transactions and found that the account in Rajasthan had been involved in the fraud. Upon tracing the owner of the account, the police arrested Shishupal Sharma, 43, in Ganganagar, Rajasthan. “Sharma was brought to Mumbai and presented before the court on Monday, where he was remanded to four days of police custody,” said a police officer from Oshiwara police station.