Cameroonian resident held for duping 40 people of ₹9 lakh

New Delhi: In a first known case of alleged involvement of foreigners in a Covid-related scam in Delhi, a woman from Cameroon, along with her boyfriend, duped more than 40 Covid-19 patients and their family members of nearly ₹9 lakh on the pretext of offering remdesivir injections, said police on Wednesday

New Delhi: In a first known case of alleged involvement of foreigners in a Covid-related scam in Delhi, a woman from Cameroon, along with her boyfriend, duped more than 40 Covid-19 patients and their family members of nearly ₹9 lakh on the pretext of offering remdesivir injections, said police on Wednesday.

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Remdesivir is a key anti-viral drug used in the treatment of Covid-19 and is currently in high demand in the national capital due to the unprecedented surge in infections.

While the woman, Ashwingwo Ashelly Azenmbuh , has been arrested from a rented flat in south Delhi’s Devli Khanpur, her boyfriend, Elumara Christian alias Emeka from Nigeria, is on the run. A total of 12 bank accounts that the couple had been operating in Delhi and other states were identified and blocked, said police.

Deputy commissioner of police (outer-north) Rajiv Ranjan Singh said the couple had uploaded details of a fake company “Global Suppliers”, along with a cellphone number, on social media. They introduced themselves as supplier of remdesivir injections. The Covid patients or their relatives who contacted them were asked to deposit an advance in bank accounts for the delivery of the injections, said Singh.

“The suspects withdrew the money within minutes of the patients and their family members depositing the money in their bank accounts and thereafter, avoided receiving their calls. They even blocked the callers who paid the advance. The couple has cheated about 40 people across India on the pretext of providing remdesivir injections,” said the DCP adding that so far, they have identified 23 victims who were (collectively) cheated of nearly ₹7.5 lakh.

Police said that on May 5, one Rakhi Gupta from Rohini filed a complaint alleging that she was duped of ₹25,000 that she paid to obtain five vials of remdesivir injection needed for her Covid-positive relative. Gupta said since the injections were not available with chemist and pharmacy shops, she started looking for possible leads on social media from where she got the number of a supplier, said police.

“Gupta contacted the person, who asked her to provide with the prescription slip of the patient and demanded ₹5,000 for each injection. The person tricked her into depositing ₹25,000 in a bank account. Thereafter, the person neither delivered the injections nor refunded the money. A case of cheating was registered on Gupta’s complaint,” said Singh.

Through technical surveillance and intelligence gathering, the police traced the suspects to a flat in Devli Khanpur in south Delhi. It was learnt that a couple from African origin lived in the flat. A police team went to the area after receiving information that the suspected woman was in the house on the night of May 8. The team members waited the entire night for the male suspect but he did not turn up.

“On the morning of May 9, the team raided the flat and arrested the woman. Our teams are taking efforts to nab her boyfriend who is on the run,” said Singh.

The police said that 10 SIM cards, five cellphones and two wi-fi hotspot devices that were being used for the crimes were seized from the flat.