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Pune: Four women BJP MLAs duped in online fraud
Pune: Four Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) women legislators from Maharashtra were duped by a fraudster, police officials said on Tuesday
Pune: Four Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) women legislators from Maharashtra were duped by a fraudster, police officials said on Tuesday.
The Bibwewadi police lodged a first information report (FIR) on July 18 against an unidentified cyber fraudster after it received a complaint that the four BJP legislators were cheated of ₹3,400 each via unified payments interface (UPI) -based fraud.
Puja, a resident of Camp and daughter of Parvati BJP MLA Madhuri Misal who was among the legislators who was duped, lodged an FIR in this regard.
The other three lawmakers are Devyani Pharande from the Nashik Central constituency under Nashik district; Shweta Mahale from Chikhali in Buldhana; and Meghana Bordikar from Jintur assembly constituency in Parbhani district.
The FIR states that the third-time MLA Misal received a call from a person identified as Mukesh Rathod who told her that his mother was hospitalised and requested for financial help. The legislator transferred money via UPI mode and later realised that she has been conned.
“He claimed that he was standing before a medical store and running short of around ₹4,000 to buy medicines. Under the impression that his mother was ill, I immediately transferred money to him through UPI mode using the scanner he had sent. Later, I realised of being duped,” said Misal.
During a meeting of BJP MLAs in Mumbai last week, the four duped legislators shared their experience with each other and decided to file a police complaint.
“We decided to file an FIR to alert others from falling into such traps,” Misal said.
Vilas Sonde, Bibwewadi police station incharge, said the complaint was lodged with the cyber cell and transferred to the police station for lodging an FIR.
“The incident took place on July 12 and a complaint was filed at the city cyber cell. As per the legislators’ complaint, a common person could be behind it,” Sonde said. The police have invoked IPC 420 (cheating) and relevant sections under the Information Technology (IT) Act. No arrest has been made so far.
