Hyderabad: The Cyberabad cyber crime police arrested three Delhi-based men on Saturday for allegedly cheating a group of 10 from Hyderabad by promising them cheaper flight tickets on Yatra.com. The trio collected Rs 1,28,700 lakh from the victims but cheated them by sending tickets with false PNR numbers.
The police nabbed Sooraj Nandan Agarwal, Saurabh Singh and Niranjan Kumar, while kingpin Amith is absconding.
Police said the ten-member group from Kukatpally had planned to go on a pilgrimage to Kolkata, Guwahati and Varanasi and searched the Internet for travel agents and tour packages.
After their search one of them got a call from one Rahul Pathak who identified himself as a travel agent registered with Yatra.com and offered them flight tickets at lower prices than other agents and also asked him to deposit Rs 1.28 lakh in an account.
Two days after the money was deposited they sent tickets via email via yatrabooking@outlook.com but the PNR number on the tickets did not match the tickets issued. The victims tried calling Rahul, but there was no response. Two days later, one Varun Paul called them and sent a series of emails to convince them that the tickets were original, but by then the victims realised that they were cheated and filed a complaint.
Police found the account in which the victims deposited the money was in Delhi and based on account details, police apprehended the three.
On questioning them the police identified the kingpin as Amith.
“Amith runs a call centre in Delhi and is cheating people by promising cheap flight tickets. By advertising on the internet using fictitious company names Amith duped many,” said Janaki Sharmila,DCP, crimes, Cyberabad.
Ms Sharmila added that Amith lured Saurabh, Suraj and Niranjan with commissions and used their bank accounts to receive the money from different parts of the country.
In November 2016, Niranjan took details of the bank account of one Rahul Pathak and shared it with his associates who had cheated several people and they used the same account to cheat the Hyderabad victims also. The accused were brought to Hyderabad on transit warrant and produced in court and were remanded. A hunt is on to nab kingpin Amith.
