Youth held from Ujjain for duping elderly man in Salt Lake

Kolkata: A youth was arrested from Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh for allegedly duping an elderly resident of Salt Lake on the pretext of paying advance for renting an apartment.

According to police, the incident took place in the last week of January this year.

Sushil Kumar, a resident of DL block in Salt Lake had given an advertisement on a website to rent out his apartment. Later, he received a call from an unknown person who claimed to be an Indian Army officer and wished to rent the apartment. Accordingly, Sushil told him the amount for rent and the amount that needed to be paid in advance.

The accused, who said his name was Abhishek, agreed and wished to pay the advance through UPI. He sent a QR code to Sushil claiming that he had set an automatic instruction and that Sushil just needed to scan the code to get the money in his bank account. As soon as the elderly man scanned the QR code, the accused gained access and transferred Rs 1.49 lakh in three transactions.

On February 1, Sushil lodged a complaint at the Bidhannagar Cyber Crime Police Station. During the probe, police traced the details of the unknown caller and found that the accused’s actual name was Abhishek Makwana and he lives in Madhavgarh under jurisdiction of Bhairavgarh Police Station in Madhya Pradesh.

Sources informed that despite Makwana being summoned twice in connection with the case, he did not appear.

About four days ago, a police team went to Madhya Pradesh and picked up Makwana from his residence. He was brought to the city on Monday on transit remand and produced at Bidhannagar ACJM Court with a prayer for police remand.