Gurugram: Retired teacher duped of Rs 6 lakh on pretext of clearing provident fund dues

An elderly woman was allegedly duped of Rs 6 lakh by a group of men posing to be employees of the ministry of finance on the pretext of helping her get her provident

An elderly woman was allegedly duped of Rs 6 lakh by a group of men posing to be employees of the ministry of finance on the pretext of helping her get her provident fund dues, which was long pending.

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The suspects — who are yet to be identified — asked the victim to submit a total of around Rs 6 lakh in various bank accounts over a period of six months, the complaint registered at Cyber police stations says. The victim was assured that the money will be refunded after a minimal deduction of one percent, said police.

According to the police, they received a complaint from the daughter of the woman from Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh, who has worked in a government school for over 35 years.

The daughter received a call on January 30 from a man who introduced himself as an employee of the ministry of finance, who wanted to discuss something regarding the provident fund of the mother after retirement.

Karan Goel, assistant commissioner of police (DLF), said that the man asked her to pay Rs 7120 as file charges initially and later asked her to pay Rs 23,458 which were to be deposited in a given account number. “Between February 15 and July 20 the victim was asked to pay Rs 606,028 in different bank accounts. She was promised that 1 % of the amount will be deducted and rest will be refunded in her bank account after the verification process,” he said.

Police said the suspects had informed that they were based in Delhi and Mumbai. At least four different people had called from different numbers , said police.

Goel said the suspect had told the daughter that her mother’s file was at Central Government Employees Group Insurance Scheme office in Delhi and those files which needs clearance from higher authorities come to them for clearance. “They informed her that her mother’s total PF amount was nearly Rs 8 lakh, out of which they had asked them to deposit Rs 6 lakh, which was refundable. Different people posing as different officials from different departments had spoken to the daughter informing them that the charges are from tax and bank departments,” he said.

The victim’s daughter, who was coordinating with the suspects realised that they had been duped after she discussed the same with another retired teacher.She then lodged a police complaint.

The victim gave all the mobile numbers and details of the bank accounts to the police following which a case was registered under section 66D of information technology act and 420 (cheating) at Cyber police station on Saturday.

The victim said she is still receiving calls from the suspects who are asking her to pay final no objection certificate charges of Rs 40,000.