It appears that yet again, Nigerians have been given a bad image on foreign soil as two persons including a Nigerian man have been arrested on charges of fraud in India
It was learnt that the accused persons, identified as Nwabueze Chukwudi Vincent and Piyush Arya of East Babarpur of the national capital from the State on the pretext of sending her a very costly gift from London, police said.
The duo aged 35 and 22 respectively had taken Rs 41 lakh from the woman, a native of Puri, between June and August this year.
According to police, Chukwudi had opened a fake Facebook profile in the name of Oscar David and then befriended the Odisha woman. The duo kept on chatting for a few months and eventually the woman started taking the foreigner’s words seriously.
Taking this as an opportunity, the Nigerian national lured the woman by saying he can send her costly gifts from London at cheap rates. Convinced, the woman had deposited the amount in different bank accounts shared by Chukwudi between June and August, police said.
The woman, who didn’t want to be named, never met the Nigerian national nor talked to him over phone, a police official said.
After realizing that she has been duped, the woman lodged a complaint with the Crime Branch in August. Following this, a case was registered on August 21.
“After registering the case we had been tracking the bank transactions and we came to know that the Nigerian national is operating a huge gang. He has opened several bank accounts to carry out such activities,” said Crime Branch Cyber Cell’s Inspector Anila Anand.
The Odisha police brought the duo to Bhubaneswar on three-day remand for interrogation and produced before Puri Sub Divisional Judicial Magistrate (SDJM) court.
They were produced before the court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) at Dwarka Court, which allowed the Crime Branch to take them on transit remand.
Further investigation is underway.