02 November,2020 05:01 PM IST | Mumbai | Diwakar Sharma
Photo used for representational purpose
Dongri police arrested seven conmen, including a Nigerian fom Delhi-National Capital Region. They were brought to Mumbai on transit remand on Monday morning. The cops said the conmen befriended Mumbai-based victim Prakash Narayan Jadhav (40) on Facebook in February and cheated him of Rs 39 lakh.
"I met a woman Mercy Grace, whom I had befriended on Facebook in February. The woman pretended to be Captain in the American Army and said she has recently been transferred to Afghanistan," the complainant told police.
During the meeting, the woman told Jadhav that she has earned huge amount and wants to invest the money in Mumbai.
"The victim got convinced as Grace assured him to run the business in partnership. The duo planned to open a shopping mall in Mumbai and on different occasions, Jadhav was asked to transfer the amount to a bank account. After getting over Rs 39 lakh from Jadhav, the woman snapped contact with him and started to ignore his calls and messages," said a police officer privy to the investigation.
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After learning that he has been conned, the victim approached Dongri police station and filed an FIR. The complaint was registered under Sections 419, 420 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Sections 66 (a), 66 (d) of the Information Technology (IT) Act.
During the investigation, API Prakash Linge and his team studied the bank account details.
"Linge-led team of police officers, including PSI Dwarka Potwade, constables Bharat Kadam, Dagdu Tadvi, Amit Karpate, Yogesh Gadhve, Tauseef Shaikh and Mukesh Sonawane, were sent to Delhi on October 27 where they arrested seven people, including a Nigerian, from different locations," Sandeep Bhagdikar, senior inspector of Dongri police station told Mid-day.
The accused have been identified as Neeraj Ramesh Verma (23) from Rithala village, Sabeer Sikandar (26) from Qutub Vihar, Man Mohan Singh (28) from Goyla Dairy farm, Chandrapal Netram Sharma (49) from Yamuna Vihar, Asif Shamsuddin Shaikh (23) from Bhajanpura, James Amaobi Obiegbulam from Mukherjee Nagar in Delhi and Waseem Ahmed Khan (32) from Ramkrishna Chowk in Noida.
"Obiegbulam is a Nigerian national whose bank account was used in the crime whereas rest of the accused assisted him," added Bhagdikar.
The accused are being produced before the court by police to seek their custody for further investigation.
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