Man dupes black fungus patient's kin on pretext of meds, arrested
New Delhi: A 28-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly cheating the kin of a patient suffering from black fungus by promising to home deliver a drug used in the treatment of the disease, police said on Sunday.
Prasant Kumar Sharma, who hails from Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh and works as a part time driver, neither delivered the medicine nor returned the money paid by the victim, they said.
Black fungus or mucormycosis is a fungal infection that affects the nose, eyes, sinuses among patients who are recovering or have recovered from COVID-19.
Sharma was arrested on Saturday after a resident of Shahdara in Delhi reported the matter to the police, police said.
In his complaint, the man alleged that his brother-in-law was admitted at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital where he was being treated for black fungus and the doctor had prescribed Amphotericin B medicine used in treating the disease.
Since the medicine was not available in the market, the complainant contacted a number which he found circulating on WhatsApp groups, the victim told the police in his complaint.
When contacted, Sharma assured the victim that he would provide the prescribed medicine and demanded Rs 3000 for it, police said.
The victim then transferred the money on his Paytm account, but the accused neither delivered the medicine, nor did he return the money, police said.
"A case was registered and during investigation, we analysed the call detail records of Sharma's phone number, and scanned through the online transactions made.
"With the help of technical surveillance and local intelligence, our team arrested Sharma from Ghaziabad," said R. Sathiyasundaram, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Shahdara).
When Sharma was interrogated, he revealed that he did not have any other source of income during this COVID-19 pandemic, so he started cheating people using this modus operandi. He also disclosed that he had earlier posted his contact number on Facebook for plasma donation," said the officer.
Police have recovered two mobile phones. Further investigation is in progress to ascertain the number of people and the amount cheated by him through fraudulent means.
