Sambalpur: The cyber police of Sambalpur cracked a major online fraud worth Rs 26.50 lakh involving fraudulent face mask supply offer and arrested a person from New Delhi.
Multiple raids by a team of officials of Sambalpur cyber police in Delhi, Faridabad and Ghaziabad led to the arrest of accused Jatin Sehgal. Hailing from Meerut of Uttar Pradesh, the 23-year-old studied till Class IX, but can speak English fluently, police said.
"Our team has recovered Rs 10 lakh cash, ATM cards, cell phones and SIM cards from the accused," northern range IG, Sambalpur Narasingha Bhol said at a presser today.
After arresting him from Delhi, the police brought the accused on transit remand. If needed, he will be taken on 7-day remand, Bhol said.
In May last year when the Coronavirus was spreading its tentacles across the country, there was scarcity of face masks and sanitisers in the market. The accused thought to take opportunity of the situation and targeted Manoj Kumar Barad, a businessman from Sonapalli area of Sambalpur.
According to sources, the accused had created a fake profile on Facebook mentioning that he owns a company named LED Rental in Gurgaon which deals with face masks.
Manoj who was looking for face masks got trapped in the fraud and deposited Rs 26.50 lakh in the bank account of the accused. However, he was shocked after finding the cellphone of the accused switched off.
Finding no other options, the businessman approached the cyber police and lodged a complaint in this regard on June 16 last year.
"We will give intimation to other districts of Odisha as well as other states. After further investigation, we can ascertain whether he is involved in any other cases," Bhol said.
(Edited By Suryakant Jena)
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