Visakhapatnam: Nigerian, aide arrested for duping retired employee

Visakhapatnam: Two persons -- Ezumezu Lucky Ozah (34), a Nigerian national, and Haryana-based Deepak (32) were arrested in New Delhi on charge of duping a retired Central government employee in the name of gift through FaceBook.

Sharing details of the case here on Wednesday, Commissioner of Police R K Meena said based on the complaint made by Saomir Kumar Das, a retired Central government employee, the accused were nabbed by the investigating officers in New Delhi on November 16.

According to the victim, he was recently acquainted with Birmingham-based Anna Rose through FaceBook and later connected with her through WhatsApp. It is learnt that she wanted to send some gifts to him and forwarded the images of the gifts containing electronic goods, clothes and cash of £25,000 and the parcel which was expected to reach the Saomir Kumar by October 3.

Meanwhile, he received a call from a woman presenting herself as customs officials and said they found foreign currency in parcel hence could not deliver the same to the address. To clear the delivery, the lady demanded payment into seven bank accounts in which the victim deposited Rs.34.19 lakh in total. With the parcel not reaching the victim, he lodged a complaint with the police.

The CP said the police went to New Delhi to investigate the case and on November 16, the team laid a trap for the account holder Deepak and nabbed him at a mobile outlet. Later, they also nabbed Ezumezu Lucky Ozah at his residence and produced before the Dwaraka Court in New Delhi.

The police obtained transit warrant to produce the accused at the court in Visakhapatnam.

Cash worth Rs 2 lakh, 95 SIM cards, five ATM cards, two expired passports, two pen drives, seven mobile phones, two bank passbooks and cheque books were seized from the accused.

The CP appreciated the investigating officers – Inspector of Police, Cyber Crime Police Station V Gopinath, SI N Ravi Kumar, police constables Srinvas, Chandra Sekhar, Kalyan and Nafizuddin for their tremendous effort in zeroing in on the culprits.

Meena appealed to the public not to accept gifts from unknown persons through social media platforms and exercise caution while depositing amount in any online deals.