Hyderabad: A 22-year-old science graduate who cheated her people by collecting money on the pretext of raising funds through a social media campaign for treating a cancer patient was arrested by Banjara Hills police on Thursday. Samiya Abdul Hafeez collected around Rs 22 lakh and spent the entire amount.
Police said that Samiya, a resident of Saidabad, completed degree two years ago. Her father Abdul Hafeez had throat cancer and was undergoing treatment at a private hospital. He is recovering now. Samiya, who used to regularly visit the hospital, met the doctor who treated her father, conducted a short interview with him about her father's medical status, severity of disease, treatment needed and estimated cost. As per her request the doctor also made an appeal during the interview saying that as she belonged to a poor family she needed the help of people.
Meanwhile, Samiya who had already discussed with her friends about her father’s treatment expenses, created a 'GoFundSamiya' page on Facebook and posted the doctor’s interview on it.
“In addition to this she also forged medical reports, prescriptions and hospital bills of her father in her name and posted it on Facebook. Her posts became viral and soon people from different parts of Hyderabad and from Gulf countries responded to her posts and came forward to help her,” Banjara Hills inspector K. Srinivas said.
From September 2016 till March 2017, she collected around Rs 22 lakh from donors, most of them based in the Gulf.
Recently, when her donors from Riyadh who had come to Hyderabad went to the hospital which Samiya said was treating her, they found that there was no such patient, and that it was her father who had underwent treatment.
Realising that they had been cheated they filed a complaint with police. The cops registered a case of cheating and arrested her on Thursday. Coming to know that Samiya had forged documents pertaining to the treatment, the hospital also complained to the police.
She admitted that she had spend around Rs 10 lakh on her father’s treatment and had cleared the debts of her family. “The donors deposited in her account at the SBH branch in Gunfoundry. Only Rs 5,000 was left in the account," the inspector said.
