The Maharashtra police have arrested a man from Chennai for allegedly cheating a Navi Mumbai resident of more than Rs 21 lakh by threatening him with Income Tax Department’s action, an official said.
Officials of the Cyber police station in Navi Mumbai arrested the accused, identified as Lokesh Kumar, from Annanur in Chennai on October 9, he said. ‘’Between August 6 and 11 this year, the accused contacted the victim over phone and told him that the I-T department was keeping an eye on his bank account that he had opened in Nagpur as heavy transactions were recorded. The accused also told the victim that some parcels were being illegally sent to Canada using his name,’’ senior inspector Gajanan Kadam of the Cyber police station said. ‘’The accused threatened that the I-T department will soon take action against him and arrest him. In order to prevent arrest, the accused demanded money from him. Out of fear, the victim paid Rs 21.22 lakh to him in different bank accounts,’’ he said. The victim later realised that he had been duped, and approached the police. Based on his complaint, a case was registered against him under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 420 (cheating), 34 (common intention) and also under the Information Technology Act in August, Kadam added.
The police then froze all the bank accounts into which the victim had transferred the money. The collective amount in these bank accounts currently stood at Rs 18,80,317, he said.
‘’The police worked on technical inputs and traced the accused to Chennai and finally nabbed him on October 9,’’ the official said, adding that some more people were likely to be involved in the racket.