Six held for duping elderly man of ₹80 lakh in Greater Noida

ccording to Abhishek Verma, deputy commissioner of police, Greater Noida, a complaint was received on July 29 this year from Greater Noida resident Ashok Sharma (67), at the Dadri police station. He alleged that he was duped of ₹80 lakh in the couple of years by telecallers posing as insurance company agents

The Gautam Budh Nagar police on Tuesday arrested five suspects, including a woman police constable, for allegedly duping a retired government officer of ₹80 lakh in the pretext of a settlement of his insurance policy. According to police, the mastermind of the gang is a former insurance policy agent who had stolen data of several insurance policy holders in order to commit the alleged fraud.

Six held for duping elderly man of ₹80 lakh in Greater Noida

The suspects have been identified Deepak Kumar, the mastermind of the gang and his wife Priyanka — residents of Ghaziabad; Jitendra, a resident of Aligarh; Vishal Tyagi, a resident of Muzaffarnagar and Harendra Krishna from Bulandshahr, police said.

All the suspects were arrested from their residence. The police have also recovered forged stamps of the Union finance ministry and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) that were used for the fraud.

According to Abhishek Verma, deputy commissioner of police, Greater Noida, a complaint was received on July 29 this year from Greater Noida resident Ashok Sharma (67), at the Dadri police station. He alleged that he was duped of ₹80 lakh in the couple of years by telecallers posing as insurance company agents.

“The complainant reported that two years back, an unknown person called him on his mobile phone, claiming to be an insurance policy agent. The caller told him that his insurance policy has lapsed but it can be renewed and he will be able to get a settlement of ₹1.20 crore, which will be deposited in his bank account as settlement fund,” said DCP Verma.

The alleged fraudsters gained victim Sharma’s trust by sending him forged documents over WhatsApp, which had letters bearing the seals of the Union finance ministry, the RBI, etc.

Sharma was asked on multiple occasions to transfer funds on the pretext of processing charges. For over two years, the retired officer ended up transferring ₹80 lakh in the hope of getting his insurance money, police added.

“The mastermind, Deepak Kumar, has been duping people since 2019. Prior to this case, he had been conning people of smaller amounts only, but this time he had obtained complete insurance details of Sharma and went for the big fraud,” said DCP Verma.

The DCP further informed that the mastermind’s wife Priyanka is currently posted as a police constable in Shamli district of western Uttar Pradesh and the role of some other policemen in Saharanpur district is also under investigation in connection with the fraud.

The suspects have been booked under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections related to cheating, forgery and impersonation as well as relevant sections of the Information Technology (IT) Act, police said.

“The suspects were produced before a magistrate and sent to judicial custody,” DCP Verma added.