woman duped of Rs 18 lakhs on pretext of marriage

Hyderabad: Two persons, including a Nigerian national, were arrested for allegedly duping a woman school teacher of Rs 18 lakh, Cyberabad Police said on Monday.

Ani John Ibuchi (36), a Nigerian national, and Bilal Khan Ahmed Khan Deshmukh (33), both residents of Mumbai, were arrested for their alleged involvement along with other absconding accused in cheating a school teacher from Gachibowli area in Hyderabad , to the tune of Rs 18.11 lakh.

They allegedly took the money on the pretext of charges for delivery of a gift containing cash of 1.4 lakh pounds, which was sent on the victim's name following a marriage proposal sent by one of the accused, a release from Cyberabad Police said on Monday.

On June 8, the teacher working for a city-based international school lodged a complaint stating that she deposited Rs 18.11 lakh in three Maharashtra-based ICICI Bank accounts.

She came in contact with one Kelvin Wynne, who introduced himself as a UK-based Geologist when she met him through Facebook in March 2015.

When he proposed to marry her, she invited him to India to discuss the issue with her father.

He informed her that he sent a gift/parcel containing a cash of 1.4 lakh pounds, along with his documents and a laptop, for his use when he planned to come to India after about two months, police said.

Later, one Chris Kennedy, posing as a manager from a courier service of Mumbai confirmed the receipt of the parcel, but told the complainant that the same was seized by the Customs officials.

Later, Jyoti Sharma and Kiran Pandurang contacted her (the victim) as secretary to a Customs official and assistant to an officer of the remittance department of RBI respectively, and made her to transfer Rs 18.11 lakh to various bank accounts towards charges for the delivery of parcel/gift, police said.

When they started demanding more money, the teacher got suspicious and approached police.

Based on her complaint, a case was registered by the cyber crime police under relevant sections of IPC and Information Technology Act, they said.

A team of Cyberabad policemen visited Maharashtra and apprehended the accused-- Ibuchi and Bilal Khan - from Mumbai, based on inputs from the bank account holders.

Bilal collected ATM cards from various persons known to him saying that he needs to get money deposited as part of business.

He got money deposited passing the details of the accounts to Ibuchi and others, for which he received his commission of 10 per cent, which he deducted from the withdrawn amount and handed it over to Ibuchi, police said. Efforts are on to nab the other accused involved in the case, they added.

Source:PTI