Cyber criminals in Bihar dupe ex-DRDO officer of ₹14.5 lakh

The victim realised that he had been duped when he visited the car showroom after the gang stopped taking his calls.

A Chhattisgarh police team from Bilaspur arrested five men from Warishliganj area in Bihar’s Nawada district Monday morning for allegedly duping a former scientific officer of DRDO of ₹14.5 lakh through a cyber fraud.

The gang targeted the senior citizen telling him that he had won a car in a lottery and needed to deposit a sum of money to claim the prize. (Representative photo/Getty Images)

Police said the gang duped people by telling them they had won a lottery and needed to make a payment to claim the prize.

The conmen have been identified as Gautam Kumar, Sanjay Kumar Mahto, Birju Kumar Ram, Sudhansu Kumar (all from Nawada) and Niraj Kumar (Nalanda). The police seized ₹5.23 lakh cash besides two laptop computers, 20 ATM cards, bank pass books, two memory cards, 30 SIM cards and three motorcycles from their possession.

During initial scanning of bank passbooks, the police found transactions of over ₹1 crore between July 7 and July 30. Bilaspur’s superintendent of police Prashant Agrawal said over phone that two of the five men are the main culprits and others were probably relatives of the accused.

According to a police report, the victim identified as C L Patel, 80, was lured into depositing a huge sum of money with a call saying “Congratulations, you have won a luxury car.”

According to police officials, such victims are generally told to keep the winning secret. “No lottery can be won unless a ticket is purchased and normally the processing fees are deducted from the prize money,” officials warn.

Patel, currently residing in Sakra police station area of Bilaspur, has lodged a complaint with concerned police station on July 30 that he had received a call from a noted automobile company informing him that he had been selected for a prize in a lucky draw due to a purchase from online marketplace Flipkart. Patel said he was contacted by a person and asked to deposit processing fee, taxes and other charges in an account number to release the luxury car.

He deposited ₹14.5 lakh in a bank account provided by the accused. The money was transferred through the branch of a nationalized bank based in Sakra. But after the money was deposited, they did not respond to his calls.

When he did not receive the car, he visited the showroom only to realise that he had been cheated.

Meanwhile, Pakribarama (in Nawada district) sub divisional police officer Mukesh Kumar Saha said following a tip-off provided by Chhattisgarh police, a joint team carried out a raid at Warshaliganj area and arrested five suspects involved in the fraud. Ahead of their arrest, the accused had been under mobile surveillance. They were taken to Chhattisgarh on a transit remand.