Fraudster from Chennai was arrested by Maharashtra Police for duping Navi Mumbai resident of Rs. 21 lakh

A man from Chennai has been apprehended by Maharashtra police for allegedly defrauding a resident of Navi Mumbai of more than Rs. 21 lakh.

Cyber Police officials (Navi Mumbai), arrested the accused, identified as Lokesh Kumar from Annanur in Chennai on October 9.

According to a senior inspector of the Cyber police station, this incident happened between August 6 and 11 this year, the accused connected with the victim over the phone and told him that the Income Tax department was monitoring the bank account that he had opened in Nagpur as unusual heavy transactions were recorded. After that, the accused alleged that illegal parcels were being dispatched to Canada in his name.

The accused demanded money from the victim by threatening that the IT department would soon take action against him and arrest him. Out of fear, the victim paid Rs. 21.22 lakh to him in various bank accounts.

Later victim realized that he had been duped, and the deceived individual reported the incident to the police. After that a case was registered against the fraudster under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 420 (cheating) and 34 (common intention), along with relevant provisions of the Information Technology Act, back in August. The police immediately froze all bank accounts involved in the transactions, which collectively held Rs. 18,80,317 at the time.

With the help of technology, the police successfully traced the perpetrator to Chennai and apprehended him on October 9. Authorities suspect that additional individuals may have been complicit in the fraudulent scheme.