Two arrested from Bengaluru for duping city bizman of Rs 82L

Kolkata: Two foreign nationals have been arrested from Bengaluru on Thursday for allegedly duping a businessman of about Rs 82 lakh from Baguiati.

According to police, the duo identified as Donous Arnold Patrick alias Domo Raud Patrick of Ivory Coast and Bake Asoro of Nigeria had jointly created a fake Facebook account posed as a woman Zofia L Rzentkowski of Canada and proposed to the complainant identified as Kushal Das Mahapatra, of Baguiati to invest in a business of seed. The fraudsters posed as Rzentkowski claimed to be the quality control analyst of Taro Pharmaceuticals Inc, Canada and had convinced him to start a business of seed supply to the USA.

On July 7, 2018 Mahapatra received an email from the said company's representative who claimed himself as Stephen Pacitti, the procurement officer of Taro Pharmaceuticals and informed him that they are in need of seed for manufacturing medicine.

Then the person told Mahapatra that soon a purchase order will be issued and confirmed several details of Mahapatra.

Later Rzentkowski informed Mahapatra about a person claimed to be Shanti Sharma, dealer of seeds. After he completed a few transactions with Sharma he received a call from a person who claimed himself as Jack Maxwell.

The person told Mahapatra that soon he will be arriving in Mumbai with a box containing $ five lakh which has been

sanctioned.

But soon he got a call from a woman claiming to be a police officer. She allegedly told Mahapatra that she had intercepted the call and found an illegal transaction of USD. Therefore she would initiate legal action if he does not pay Rs 10 lakh.

In several such manners Mahapatra was cheated of Rs 82 lakh in multiple phases and the accused persons had stopped all sorts of communication.