Doctor cheated of ₹40L, 3 Africans held
NEWDELHI: Three persons of African origin, including a woman, were arrested between Monday and Tuesday from south Delhi on charges of allegedly cheating a doctor from east Delhi of around ₹40 lakh by ‘honey-trapping’ him through social media.
The three allegedly offered the victim to convert “black papers” into pounds.
The arrested men were identified as Oluwole Celestine and Kelechi Kenneth. Police withheld the identity of the woman. A South African passport was seized from Celestine while Kenneth had passports of South Africa, Tanzania and Nigeria.
Deputy commissioner of police (Shahdara) Nupur Prasad said the arrested were members of an international syndicate of cheats involved in black money scam, also known as ‘wash wash scam’.
The arrests were made after a cheating case was filed by a doctor named Vijay. The doctor told police that he had befriended a woman named Sandra Cage from the UK on Facebook who told him that she will visit him in India.
On November 20, the woman telephoned Vijay and said she was taken into custody by immigration officials at Mumbai airport for illegally carrying 3.5 lakh pounds. She told him to transfer ₹45,000 into her account to pay the fine and another ₹70,000 to be paid to the income tax department. She promised to return the money. On December 3, one Jacob came to the doctor’s house with a small coffer and said it contained 3.5 lakh pounds left for him by Sandra. Jacob took out a small bottle and told Vijay that it contained cleaning solution because all currency notes had a stamp mark and that it was to be cleaned before use. He tricked Vijay into paying around ₹40 lakh for purchasing the solution.
Vijay realised he was being cheated when he was asked for ₹3 lakh more. “A trap was laid at the place where the cheats asked the doctor to come with money. The two men were held. Their interrogation led to the woman’s arrest,” said Prasad.