Noida police bust international gang for duping 700 women in 1 year

Police officers also said that only two of the foreign nationals were found to have a legal visa to stay in India, while five others were found to be living in India illegally

The Gautam Budh Nagar police arrested an eight-person gang, including seven foreign nationals, on Wednesday for duping women out of large sums of money by befriending them on social media sites. According to investigators, the gang of six men and two women has duped at least 600 to 700 women in India out of lakhs of rupees in the past year.

According to officials, the arrested suspects were brought before a local court and placed in judicial custody. (ANI)

Police officers also said that only two of the foreign nationals were found to have a legal visa to stay in India, while five others were found to be living in India illegally.

According to Shakti Avasthy, additional deputy commissioner of police, Noida, the case came to light when a woman filed a complaint at the Sector 20 police station in August 2022.

“According to the complainant, a man named Morgan befriended her on Instagram and told her he was a Navy officer living in the United States. After befriending the woman, he informed her that he was sending her some gifts and showed her a picture of the parcel. Later, the woman received a call from someone claiming to be a customs official, telling her that she needed to pay ₹2.5 lakh in customs duty to release the gift from the airport,” Avasthy said.

The woman transferred the money, after which the person named Morgan and the customs duty official ended contact with her, which led her to realise she had been duped, said officers.

A first information report was filed under Indian Penal Code Section 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and IT Act sections 66 and 66D (cheating using communication devices or computers).

“During the investigation, it was discovered that the complainant was duped by a gang of fraudsters operating in Delhi-NCR. On Wednesday, all gang members, who were staying in rented housing in Nihal Vihar, Delhi, were apprehended. Six men and one woman from various African countries were arrested, as well as their Indian woman associate from Sikkim,” said Avasthy.

The accused have been identified as Daniel John (Ghana), Calvin Okafor Guise (Nigeria), Uchenna Egbu (Nigeria), Jonas Dekka (Ghana), Hibib Fofana (Ivory Coast), Ixa Sagir (Nigeria), and Oyoma Lisa Domenik (Nigeria). In addition, Radhika Chhetri, an Indian woman from Gangtok in Sikkim, has been identified as a gang member. According to police, Chhetri posed as a customs department representative because she spoke Hindi and assisted the gang in duping several people.

According to the police, 31 mobile phones were seized from the gang’s possession. The phones had the contact details and chats with as many as 600 to 700 women, said officers. The gang is estimated to have duped these women of a total of ₹7 crore, said officers familiar with the matter.

“The gang would take at least ₹1 lakh from a target, depending on how much they could bargain for. Two came to India on student visas, one on a health visa, and another on a tourist visa. Their visas, however, expired at least one and a half years ago, and only the visas of two foreigners arrested were found to be valid,” said Rajneesh Verma, assistant commissioner of police-1, Noida.

According to officials, the arrested suspects were brought before a local court and placed in judicial custody.