New Delhi, Aug 28 (PTI) The Delhi Police has arrested a 45-year-old man in connection with a 10-year-old cheating and cyber fraud case in which a woman from Assam was allegedly duped of Rs 16 lakh, an official said on Friday.
The accused, Sunil Gupta, was arrested on August 21 from his office in Uttam Nagar, where he was working as a property dealer.
The case dates back to 2016, when the complainant, a resident of Guwahati, was allegedly contacted by people impersonating officials of a bank.
They obtained her banking, ATM and PIN details and fraudulently transferred Rs 16.08 lakh from her account to several bank accounts opened using fake identities, a senior police officer said.
The case was initially registered at Pan Bazar police station in Assam’s
Kamrup district and was later transferred to Dwarka South police station in Delhi.
During the investigation, police found that the accused allegedly could not withdraw the money following demonetisation and instead used debit and credit cards to purchase gold coins from different jewellery shops in Delhi, the officer said.
An ‘untrace report’ was initially filed in 2019, but further investigation was ordered by the court, and a team was constituted to conduct the probe.
“Information about the bank account holders and documents used in the fraud were examined and details of suspects were obtained using the NATGRID application,” he added.
NATGRID (National Intelligence Grid) is an integrated IT platform used by law enforcement agencies to access a master database for counter-terrorism and serious crime investigations.
On August 21, police received information that Gupta was hiding in Uttam Nagar and working as a property dealer. He was subsequently apprehended from his office in Bhagwati Garden.
During questioning, Gupta disclosed that he had come to Delhi from West Bengal around two decades ago and initially worked as a taxi driver.
He later met Ishan Mahey, another taxi driver, and allegedly started preparing fake identity documents and arranging bank accounts in different names. According to the police, Gupta would provide such accounts to Mahey for use in cyber frauds and received around Rs 4,000-5,000 per account.
Police said Gupta further disclosed that in 2016, he, Mahey and another accused, Arun, conspired to transfer around Rs 16-17 lakh from the Guwahati woman’s account. A woman working at his tour and travel office was also allegedly involved.
“The accused purchased gold coins with the fraudulently obtained money and later distributed them among themselves. Gupta has four previous cases of cheating and fraud registered against him in Delhi, Tamil Nadu and Haryana,” the officer said.
Mahey has also been arrested by Chhattisgarh Police and is currently lodged in Durg jail. He is facing more than eight cyber fraud cases.
Further investigation in the case is underway. PTI BM BM AMJ AMJ
