Man who cheated woman of ₹1L held; main accused on the run

THE ACCUSED CALLED THE COMPLAINANT IN JUNE 2017 AFTER SHE SHARED HER NUMBER ON A JOBSEARCH WEBSITE. SHE WAS ASKED TO PAY ₹1.21 LAKH AS ‘PROCESSING FEE’

MUMBAI:THE Cuffe Parade police arrested a 24-year-old man from Uttar Pradesh for cheating a woman from South Mumbai of ₹1.21 lakh.

The 24-year-old complainant, Jyoti Singh Chaudhary, was contacted by the accused Devrushi Ashok Kumar Sharma, a resident of Uttar Pradesh, in June last year after she uploaded her contact details on job-search website.

Sharma posed as an executive from the website, and demanded money from Chaudhary under the pretext of processing fees.

After Chaudhary did not receive a job and Sharma stopped responding to her, she approached the Cuffe Parade police and registered a complaint. Sharma was then booked under sections 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code, and section 66D (punishment for cheating by personation by using computer resource) of the Information Technology Act. Based on the details such as cell phone location and bank account activity, the police team tracked Sharma down and arrested him from Uttar Pradesh.

The case has opened up a wider network of fraudsters that the Cuffe Parade police is now trying to crack down. According to Cuffe Parade officials, the bank account was controlled by the main accused, who directed Sharma to open the account, make calls and get the cash deposited.

Sanjay Pawar, police inspector with Cuffe Parade police station, said, “We are now in the process of investigating Sharma’s bank account activities, from which we may get leads and track the main accused.”