Inter'l Cyber fraud racket busted, 1 Nigerian national nabbed from Bengaluru

New Delhi, Nov 20 (IANS) An international cyber fraud racket was busted by the Delhi Police with the arrest of one Nigerian in Bengaluru, an official said here on Saturday.

According to Deputy Commissioner of Police Deepak Yadav, a complaint was registered at the Tilak Marg Police Station on November 2 in which a man was cheated by hacking his Whatsapp application.

As per the complaint, the complainant Ranglal Jamuda reported that he received a WhatsApp message that the facilities on WhatsApp are being upgraded for which system is generating a 6 digit code. As soon as the complainant typed his mobile number followed by the 6 digit code provided by that unknown mobile number, the WhatsApp screen of the complainant became non-functional and his WhatsApp was hacked by some unknown person.

Further, he alleged that the hacker started to send messages to his relatives through WhatsApp and requested for transfer of the amount on different grounds. Bank account numbers of Federal Bank & IDBI Bank were provided by the accused for transferring the amount.

After this, the Delhi Police registered a complaint and initiated an investigation which revealed that the accused were luring numerous victims on different grounds and inducing them to transfer money in bank accounts. It was also revealed that accused were changing their Bank accounts regularly in order to hoodwink police.

"As soon as any victim transferred the amount in the bank, the same was being withdrawn from different ATMs in Banaswadi, Bangalore," the official said. The senior officials then constituted a team of five cops, including a woman constable, and sent them to Bengaluru to nab the culprit.

The police team laid a trap on November 16 in Bengaluru. When the accused, identified as Okwudiri Paschal, a resident of Bengaluru and permanent resident of Nigeria, reached the ATM, the sleuths of Delhi Police swung into action. The accused made the withdrawal of a cheated amount of Rs 20,000 from the ATM.

When the accused got suspicious of police's presence and tried to flee the spot, he banged against a scooty and fell down. "The Delhi Police team acting swiftly, overpowered and arrested him", the official said.

After the arrest, ATM of bank account and SMS alert mobile number related to the instant case alongwith cheated withdrawal amount was recovered from his possession. Apart from this, seven other ATM cards, numerous SIM cards and four mobile phones were also recovered from his possession.

DCP Yadav said this is one of the rarest cases unearthed by Delhi Police wherein an accused has been arrested on the spot while withdrawing cheated amount from the ATM in Bangalore.

The accused was brought to Delhi on transit remand. On November 19, he was produced in a local Court. Since an elaborate investigation was required, eight days of police custody remand of the accused was obtained to unearth the entire international racket.