Man held for duping ex-CJI sent to 2-day police custody

New Delhi: The man who allegedly duped former Chief Justice of India R M Lodha of Rs 1 lakh, by hacking into the email account of a retired Supreme Court judge, was remanded to two days in police custody by a Delhi court on Wednesday. South Delhi DCP Vijay Kumar said that Duty Magistrate Anjani Mahajan allowed police the custodial interrogation of Dinesh Mali.

The police had sought two-day custody of the accused. It may seek further custody since the investigation is still going on, Kumar said, adding that the accused was brought from Udaipur on Tuesday.

The alleged theft came to light on May 30 after Lodha, who lives in South Delhi's Panchsheel Park, received an e-mail from retired Supreme Court judge B P Singh stating that his email was hacked by an unknown person late at night on April 18.

Delhi Police then registered a case based on Lodha's complaint, alleging that an RTGS transfer of Rs one lakh was made from his account after he received the message from the hacked email, police said.

A police team then went to Udaipur to verify details of the SBI account where the money had allegedly been transferred and examined CCTV footage of the ATM kiosk where the money was withdrawn.

Police also asked Gmail for help in identifying the creator of the fake email and according to them, Mali deals in water purifiers and repair work. During interrogation, Mali disclosed that one Mukesh used to give him Rs 1,000 as commission for every transaction the latter made in Mali's bank account.

Police added that Mali's bank account showed such transactions worth Rs 4.5 lakh from across the country. The amount is yet to be recovered, police said.