SRPF cop’s kin duped of Rs 1L, amount recovered

The North Region Cyber Police helped recover Rs 1 lakh that a relative of a State Reserve Police Force (SRPF) constable had lost after a cyber fraudster had duped the personnel's relative through a social media platform.

The unidentified accused had created a fake Facebook profile of the SRPF personnel and contacted the relatives through messenger, posing as the policeman, requesting to write funds for an emergency.

Last week, Bhushan Pawar, a relative of the SRPF constable Manohar Patil, had received a message via Facebook messenger. The message was sent by a profile that belonged to Patil, wherein the sender asked Pawar to lend him some cash for an emergency. Pawar called Patil, but the call went unanswered. Pawar then thought that his cousin could be in trouble and asked him in messenger how to wire the money.

The sender asked Pawar to wire Rs 15,000 via UPI method and shared a bank account number. Subsequently, the sender kept asking for more money after every transaction, making six transfers of Rs 1 lakh. When the sender kept asking for more, Pawar found something amiss and contacted Patil only to realise that he was being duped, said inspector Sarla Vasave of North Region Cyber police station.

Patil checked Facebook and saw a fake profile in his name. He then approached the local police, who asked him to go to North Region Cyber police station. The police lodged a case and asked the private bank to stop the payment.

Within 36 hours, the entire amount was transferred to Pawar's account as the bank had freezed the transaction.

The accused had created a fake Facebook profile of the SRPF personnel and contacted the relatives through messenger requesting to write funds for an emergency