By Kolawole Ojebisi
Three Nigerians have been arrested in Delhi and face a minimum of three years imprisonment for allegedly engaging in cyber fraud.
They are being accused of defrauding an Indian woman of over Rs 2.62 lakh. According to a report by the Times of India, these suspects were arrested in Delhi on Saturday by the cybercrime police. The report identified the alleged cybercriminals as Lezhu John, Gibril Mohammed, and Egboola Ekena.
Although the three suspects have not yet been formally charged in court, findings revealed that if convicted, each suspect faces a minimum of three years imprisonment under the Information Technology Act (IT Act, 2000) and the Indian Penal Code.
According to Section 66D of the Indian IT Act, as cited on the website of India-based law firm, S.S. Rana & Co. on Sunday, “Punishment for cheating by personation by using computer resources; whoever, by means of any communication device or computer resource, cheats by personation shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term, which may extend to three years, and shall also be liable to a fine, which may extend to one lakh rupees.”
The suspects were allegedly operating a cybercrime racket that led to numerous individuals across India becoming victims. According to the India cybercrime police, the most recent victim filed a complaint at the Cybercrime Police Station after realising she had been defrauded by a suspect she had connected with on her Instagram account.
The suspects reportedly had numerous photographs of men and women stored on their mobile phones, which they allegedly used to create fake social media profiles and deceive people.
“Investigations revealed that the accused used over 500 bank accounts to commit the fraud. Over 900 complaints have been filed across the country in connection with these bank accounts,” said the ACP (Cybercrime), Vadodara, M.M. Rajput.
One of the accused had allegedly introduced himself as Sohn Yunmin, claiming to be a chemical engineer from the United States.
The suspect allegedly told the woman he would soon be working in Assam, and through their growing friendship, she eventually sent him a gift.
The report partly read, “In April this year, the accused told the woman that he needed to buy some machinery and his friend, who was supposed to pay for it, didn’t have money in his bank account. He asked her to transfer him Rs 50,000, and she obliged. After some days, the accused told her he was coming to Assam as he got a job offer there and his parcel would soon land in India.
“After some days, she got a call from a woman called Niharika who asked for Rs 35,500 for the parcel that had US dollars. She transferred the amount, but Niharika kept asking for more money by giving various reasons. The complainant ended up transferring Rs 1.69 lakh, but she soon realised that she was being duped.”
The police stated that the suspects were tracked down using the details of the bank transactions. It remains unclear when the three Nigerians will be charged in court.
