Friday, 17 February 2023 | PNS | DEHRADUN
The Uttarakhand Special Task Force (STF) on Thursday arrested a Nigerian man from Telangana, Hyderabad under warrant-B for duping a resident of Udham Singh Nagar of Rs 9.5 lakh in the name of income tax refund. The STF said that one of the accused involved in the scam is still absconding. The deputy superintendent of police (DSP) of Cyber Crime, STF, Ankush Mishra informed as per the complainant, an unknown person contacted him through e-mail posing as an officer from the Income Tax department who obtained his bank account information in the name of filing his income tax return and income tax refund.
The accused misused this information to get an online loan of Rs 25 lakh out of which he withdrew Rs 9.5 lakh. Mishra said that DGP Ashok Kumar transferred this case to Cyber Crime Police Station in Dehradun with immediate effect considering the sensitivity of the matter. He said that the senior superintendent of police of STF, Ayush Agrawal formed a team under the leadership of inspector Vikas Bharadwaj that conducted raids in several states across the country to gather information and evidence against the accused. As per the information gathered by the team, a Nigerian identified as Ifeanyi Collins Chickwendu had allegedly committed the fraud.
The DSP said that the accused was recently arrested in Goa and since a cheating case was also registered against him in Telangana, Hyderabad, he was detained in the Central Jail there. He said that the STF obtained a warrant B against the accused and got judicial custody remand of the accused from the jail in Hyderabad. The DSP said that an absconding accused allegedly involved in this scam would also be arrested soon by the STF. He also appealed to the public not to share any personal information and bank details in the name of lucrative offers as cyber criminals used them to conduct cyber frauds. He also appealed to the public to contact authorities or call the helpline number 1930 immediately after the witness or become a victim of cyber fraud.
