Nigerian national arrested for siphoning of Rs 1.60cr from NRI

Kolkata: A Nigerian national was arrested from New Delhi on Sunday for allegedly siphoning of Rs 1.60 crore from a Non Resident Indian (NRI) identified as Utpal Sengupta of New Jersey in USA, who has a home at Mandevilla Gardens in Kolkata.

According to the police, Sengupta has an bank account with the State Bank Of India (SBI)'s NRI branch at Chowringhee.

On December 15, 2017, Sengupta lodged a complaint at Shakespeare Sarani police station alleging that some miscreants have siphoned of Rs 1.60 crore from his bank account to some other bank accounts in India.

After preliminary investigation by Shakespeare Sarani police station, the case was taken up by the Detective Department (DD) of Kolkata Police.

During the probe, the police nabbed 11 persons from Kolkata and its adjacent areas, who were found involved in the racket. After interrogating them, the name of a Nigerian national, identified as Okafar Paul Chukwunweike alias Austinn George, cropped up.

Later, the police came to know that Chukwunweike somehow managed to hack Sengupta's e-mail address and sent instructions to the bank from it to transfer money to four bank accounts within India.

He had hired several people but none of them know where Chukwunweike stays. Recently, police managed obtain his address by tracking his Internet Protocol (IP) address and a team from DD was sent to New Delhi.

On Sunday, Chukwunweike was arrested from Mehrouli area in New Delhi. During the search of the premises where he lived, the police found several documents, including an Aadhar Card on his name, which he obtained by generating fake documents. It was also found that he was staying in India for a longtime without any valid visa or travel documents. To avoid police action, he used to frequently change his place of stay. Chukwunweike was brought to Kolkata on transit remand and was produced at the Bankshall Court on Wednesday. He has been remanded to police custody till August 20.