Jharkhand youth arrested for duping housewife of Rs2.35 lakh

EOI, DARJEELING, 29 Jul 2015: A youth from Jharkhand was produced in court today on charges of cheating a housewife from Darjeeling and sent to seven days in police remand. Police on Tuesday evening arrested Prakash Kumar Singh (21), a student from Jharkhand, on the charge of duping Yanzi Sherpa of Ganesh Gram in Darjeeling of Rs2.35 lakh.

According to assistant public prosecutor Pankaj Prasad, in January of this year, Singh introducing himself as a representative of the popular reality show, ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’, had called Sherpa to inform her that she had been chosen as the “lucky winner” of Rs25 lakh, but she had to first deposit Rs2.35 lakh.

The APP said the Jharkhand youth then gave Sherpa an ISD phone number, which apparently belonged to a bank manager, and asked her to call him for further details. “Since it was an ISD number she (Sherpa) only gave a missed call. She, however, got a call back from the same number and was confirmed that she had won Rs25 lakh. The victim was given three separate bank account numbers and was asked to deposit the money in them,” Prasad said.

The three banks that Sherpa was asked to deposit the money were IDBI, ICICI and Punjab National Bank. “The unsuspecting victim deposited the Rs2.35 lakh as asked by the accused in the banks within two days. But when she received no further communication, Sherpa realised she had been duped and lodged a complaint with the Sadar police station,” the APP said. The police started a case under Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code and 66 of the IT Act.

Investigation revealed that the three accounts given to Sherpa were located in Jharkhand and so the police immediately got them frozen.

The police action had its desired effect as the youth from Jharkhand started calling Sherpa asking her to take back the complaint. “The accused started calling the victim asking her to take back the complaint and also assured her that the money would be returned,” Prasad said.

There were no calls from Singh for a while until a few days ago and Sherpa immediately informed the police. “Sherpa asked the accused to come to Darjeeling as part of the plan to nab him. On

Tuesday, Singh arrived in Darjeeling and he was arrested in the evening,” the APP said. Singh was produced in the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) court in Darjeeling, today and sent to seven days police remand. “CJM Gurudas Biswas directed the accused to be sent to police custody for further investigation,” Prasad said. The police refused to comment saying the possibility of a larger nexus could not be ruled out and that it could affect the investigation.