25-year-old held for duping bizman of ₹1.94 crore by faking PMO, NSA email IDs

Bandra police arrested a 25-year-old woman from Mumbai airport on Monday for cheating a businessman from Bandra of ₹1.94 crore. The accused had allegedly claimed

Bandra police arrested a 25-year-old woman from Mumbai airport on Monday for cheating a businessman from Bandra of ₹1.94 crore. The accused had allegedly claimed she needed the money to study in Delhi to pursue her ambition to clear UPSC examinations and created fake email accounts of the Prime Minister’s office (PMO) and national security advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval to convince the businessman that she was recruited by the intelligence bureau.

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According to the complaint registered by the 62-year-old businessman Manohar Tank, the accused’s mother used to visit his house for his wife’s cosmetic treatment and had requested him to financially help her daughter to clear UPSC exams in 2016.

“Tank agreed to sponsor her studies. But the accused kept borrowing money from him under different pretexts. In 2018, she told Tank that she had cleared the exam and was recruited by the intelligence bureau. When Tank asked her to return the money, she said she would return the money soon,” said sub-inspector Sachin Chaudhary.

Following this, Tank received emails, supposedly from the PMO and NSA’s email id, saying the prime minister was happy with him for having helped the accused, said Chaudhary. “Tank received several such mails. One of those mails said PMO would pay the money he had spent on the accused,” said Chaudhary.

In June this year when Tank verified the email address, he realised the accused had cheated him, following which he lodged a complaint with Bandra police station on June 5. “We registered an offence under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and Information Technology Act,” said Chaudhary.

On Monday, when the accused returned to Mumbai from Delhi, she was arrested at the airport and has since been remanded in police custody. During interrogation, the police learnt that she had completed a course in fashion designing, for which she had borrowed money from Tank. To maintain her profile, she used to live in a rented apartment for ₹1.7 lakh per month, said police officers.

“The accused had even kept her mother in the dark,” said Chaudhary. Meanwhile, the accused was subjected to Covid-19 test at JJ Hospital according to protocol and was found to be positive, following which she has been kept under quarantine.