Man held from West Bengal for duping doctors

Noida: A suspect was arrested by the cyber cell unit of Uttar Pradesh’s Special Task Force (UP-STF) from his home in West Bengal after a doctor in Greater Noida lodged a complaint that he was duped of ₹18

Noida: A suspect was arrested by the cyber cell unit of Uttar Pradesh’s Special Task Force (UP-STF) from his home in West Bengal after a doctor in Greater Noida lodged a complaint that he was duped of ₹18.72 lakh by a medical representative.

Man held from West Bengal for duping doctors

Police said the suspect has been identified as Vishal Pandey (31), a resident of Burdwan in West Bengal, who did his BSc from Banaras Hindu University and an MBA later.

According to police, the suspect worked with a pharmaceutical company in Raipur, Chhattisgarh, and had lost his job in 2017.

“During investigation, he told us that he earned a hefty commission when several doctors whom he knew sought his help in turning their black money into white during the demonetisation drive in 2016. He said he came to know that doctors have a lot of black money to spend. During the same time, he lost his job as some doctors complained against him,” said Reeta Yadav, in charge of Cyber police station in Noida’s Sector 36.

The suspect gathered contact details of doctors on Just Dial and healthcare platforms online and got in touch with them.

“He got the membership of a travel company and booked hold tickets in the name of these doctors and their family members. He would then edit the tickets online and make it seem like confirmed tickets that he sent to the doctors. It was easier for him to pose as a medical representative since he had already worked in the profession. Also, since he used to sell heart medicines earlier, most of the doctors he targeted were cardiologists as he knew what to pitch to these doctors,” said Yadav.

A hold ticket secures the price of the booked flight for 72 hours before purchase, giving buyers more time to decide whether to book a ticket or not.

The suspect would then ask these doctors to transfer money through wallets and net banking and disappear. The doctors would only come to know about the fraud when they reached the airport to find tickets were not booked and hotel bookings and documents were also faked.

Police said the suspect has duped at least 100 doctors across the country and earned crores through the fraud. “We have also come to know that a case was registered against him by singer Anup Jalota’s brother in Lucknow,” added Yadav.

A case has been registered against the suspect under various sections of the Information Technology (IT) Act. Investigations have also revealed that there are at least 19 other cases registered against him over the last couple of years in Lucknow, Asansol, Dhanbad, Muzaffarnagar, Raigarh, Bhilai and Kanpur, police added.