New Delhi: A 28-year-old school dropout who duped more than 500 persons in the name of installing mobile phone towers was arrested by the cyber cell (CyPAD) of Delhi Police.
The investigating agency said that the accused modus operandi included targeting people from several areas and posting advertisements in newspapers.
Police identified the accused as Ritesh Sharma who was arrested from Delhi. Deputy Commissioner of Police (CyPAD) Anyesh Roy said a case was registered in CyPAD.
In this case, the complainant company had alleged that they came to know that some persons were fraudulently using their logos, identical websites, identical emails, letterheads etc. to deceive the public at large into believing that they were company representatives, offering them a lucrative return for using their property for installation of mobile towers and thus, making money by cheating gullible people.
A team under ACP Aditya Gautam started the probe and nabbed the accused. " Sharma, to reach out to people, the accused decided to target people in Kerala, Assam, Maharashtra. As a next step, he found out about newspapers being read most widely in these states and started publishing advertisements in those newspapers," said DCP Cyber Cell. He would offer people Rs. 30 lakh upfront for letting him use their land for installation of mobile tower and Rs. 60 thousand per month as rent. He would then ask them for money as processing fees. He managed to dupe people doing this.
Police said Ritesh has duped more than 500 persons so far, several of whom have already been identified. He has cheated people of an amount ranging from Rs. 10,000 to over Rs. 1 lakh. It is roughly estimated that he has managed to con people of around Rs. one crore since he started doing this in 2015.