THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Two Nigerians were arrested from Delhi for duping the widow of a city-based IAS officer to the tune of Rs 10 lakh over facebook. The duo was brought to the city on Thursday and produced before a local court.
The accused identified as Obero Saturday and Pascal Ekema of Nigeria had duped the 67-year-old widow over facebook offering to buy her a new home.
One of them posing as British citizen Kennedy over a social networking site demanded the money claiming he was held up by customs officials for bringing too much money into the country.
The woman who transferred Rs 10.5 lakh later grew suspicious and registered a complaint with the city cyberpolice. The cyberpolice then invited the suspects to a mall at Saket under the pretext of handing over an additional Rs 10 lakh.
The cops in civilian clothes then picked them up and recorded the arrest at a local police station. Further a transit warrant was obtained from the local court and they were brought to the city.
“Our cyber team scanned over 50 mobile phones and 100 email accounts used by the suspects. Around five different localities in New Delhi were used as hideouts,” the state police said in a statement.
Incidentally, their bank account details revealed that transactions worth crores of rupees had been done by victims hailing from all states in South India.
The gang is also suspected of having links with local aides who help them dupe people over the phone. The same cyber police station of Thiruvananthapuram city police had recently arrested five Nigeraians and a native of Bihar from New Delhi in three different cases.
The arrest was made by a team designated by ADGP Anantha Krishnan and SP Rajpal Meena. Inspectors T Syamlal, Sajikumar B and head constable Sunil Kumar were part of the team.
