Nigerian nationals held for cheating man in Bangur

Kolkata: Two Nigerian nationals were recently arrested in New Delhi for allegedly duping a person residing in Bangur by sending him a gift.

The victim was duped of Rs 3.5 lakh. Sources claimed that the gang used to dupe several people in India and as well as many foreign countries by operating from New Delhi.

It is suspected that till date they have duped hundreds of crore rupees as they have been running the racket for more than three years. On June 3, a person identified as Satyajit Karmakar of Bangur Avenue in Lake Town area lodged a complaint at the Bidhannagar Cyber Crime police station alleging that he has been duped of Rs 3.5 lakh by some unknown persons.

In the complaint he stated that a few months ago he got involved in a friendship with a woman who identified herself as Ella James of London on Facebook in May this year.

She had introduced herself as a marine engineer and she said worked as a captain in a ship. After a few days of interaction they exchanged their mobile numbers. After that one day Karmakar got a Whatsapp call from the woman.

James said she wished to send Karmakar a gift as a token of their friendship which he agreed to receive. On May 29, Karmakar received a phone call from a woman who claimed herself to be an officer from the Customs department.

She informed Karmakar that a parcel from abroad in his name is kept at the Customs facility in New Delhi and he had to deposit Rs 50,000 to release the parcel from their custody. Karmakar understood that the parcel was from London so agreed to pay money. Within a few minutes he received and e-mail with details of bank account number where the money needs to be deposited. But before he could transfer the money, another mail was sent where it was mentioned that some amount of cash was detected inside the parcel and it attracts the sections of Prevention of Money Laundering Act as per the Indian Law. To avoid any prosecution or case and obtain an 'anti-money laundering certificate' Karmakar needs to pay Rs 2.5 lakh to Customs. In fear of getting involved some criminal activities unknowingly, Karmakar paid the amount in the bank account number provided to him. Following that he was again contacted by the woman to pay the amount to release the parcel.

Karmakar transferred Rs 50, 000 to the account. But after a few days when no parcel arrived and the same woman asked him to transfer Rs 6.5 lakh on account of Income Tax clearance, Karmakar understood that he has been duped.

During investigation, sleuths came to know a gang operated by some Nigerian nationals from New Delhi are cheating people. Cops went to New Delhi and arrested the two accused persons identified as Okafor Andrew Chinonso and Okafor Francis Chukwudi on Thursday afternoon. They were produced before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Dwarka Division in New Delhi with prayer for transit remand which was granted. The duo were brought to Kolkata on Sunday and will be produced before the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Bidhannagar with prayer for police custody.