MP: Gwalior Crime Branch arrests two for defrauding elderly woman of Rs 38 Lakh

Gwalior (Madhya Pradesh) [India], August 1 (ANI): Gwalior Crime Branch has arrested two persons for their alleged involvement in defrauding an elderly woman of Rs 38 Lakh in the city, an official said on Thursday.

The elderly woman, who is a doctor, was defrauded in the name of an enforcement agency in April this year. Following her complaint to the crime branch, the police began an investigation and arrested the two accused identified as Shahrukh and Laiq from Bhopal on Tuesday, the police added.

Superintendent of Police (SP) Dharmaveer Singh told ANI, “An elderly woman, who is an MBBS doctor, was defrauded in the name of an enforcement agency on April 9 in Gwalior. She told the police that she had received a call, and was told that a consignment which had been booked by her had a lot of objectionable items like drugs and some fake passports. She was further told that her consignment was being investigated at a police station in Lucknow.”

According to the police, the victim told the accused that she had neither booked any consignment nor sent anything. After that the accused made the victim talk to a person who posed as SHO (Station House Officer) of Lucknow. Later the woman was told that it was a big crime and its investigation was transferred to the CBI. The accused talked to the lady by posing as a CBI officer as well, after that for several days they also talked to her through WhatsApp calls, the officer said.

“The lady was pressured that some bank accounts were opened using her IDs and an amount of about Rs 3 crores was deposited in those bank accounts. These amount were linked with human trafficking cases. After this, the woman got very scared of these allegations. She was pressured again that if she wanted a fair investigation, she needed to transfer all her money into their (accused) account. They (the accused) will investigate it, if nothing comes out during the investigation, then they will return that amount to her account,” SP Singh said.

“The accused sent a fake CBI arrest warrant and also a fake letter to the woman for transferring the amount. The woman thought that she had not done anything wrong, and then her amount would be returned to her account after a probe. Therefore, the woman transferred an amount of about Rs 38 lakhs from her account to their (accused) bank account. Later when she realised that the money given did not return and she came to know that cyber fraud had happened with her then she reported it to Crime Branch Gwalior,” the officer said.

The Crime Branch team registered an FIR and began an investigation. The officer arrested two from Bhopal on July 30. One accused has been identified as Shahrukh and the other is Laiq. Both the accused were questioned after which their links were known and it came to notice that the entire amount of the fraud was transferred into 18 different bank accounts, he added.

The police have taken the remand of both the accused and further investigation into the matter is underway, SP Singh added. (ANI)