The Delhi police has arrested five people from Bhopal for allegedly extorting ₹70,000 from a man by posing as police officers, officials said on Friday.
The five accused have been identified as Vishwajeet Giri (25), Sudhir Pal (39), Ravi Kushwah (27), Kunji Lal Ahirvar (45), and Maya Singh (28) and were arrested on Wednesday, they said.
The matter came to light when the police received a complaint from Deepak Kumar Gupta on the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal, police said.
“Gupta stated that he got a call on his mobile phone. The caller introduced himself as a police officer. The caller told Gupta that his son, along with his three friends was under his custody,”Deputy Commissioner of Police (Rohini) G S Sidhu said.
“The caller demanded ₹70,000 in lieu of release of his son,” the DCP said.
When Gupta asked the caller to let him talk to his son, the caller allegedly made another person with a similar voice talk to him, DCP said.
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Following this, Gupta transferred ₹70,000 to the bank account provided by the caller. He later found that his son was not in his custody and approached the police, Sidhu said.
During the investigation, the police traced the money trail and found that the accused were operating from Bhopal, he said.
A police team was sent to Bhopal and nabbed the five accused, he said.
“One of the accused, Vishwajeet Giri disclosed that he used to arrange bank accounts in Bhopal to receive the cheated money. He used to lure poor people by giving them some money in exchange of their documents to open bank accounts. He would then use these accounts to transfer money to a Bihar-based kingpin,” DCP said.
The team recovered 40 mobile phones, 41 SIM cards, 10 debit cards, and 18 bank documents and passbooks from their possession, he said.
Efforts are being made to arrest the kingpin as well, he added.
