80 bank accounts of Nigerian gang reveal transactions of Rs 50 crore

Jaipur: Five days after arrested four people including three Nigerian nationals and a woman belonging to Northeast India for duping a CRPF jawan of Rs 20 lakh, the police revealed that the gang was operating about 80 bank accounts. The police have found transactions of Rs 50 crore. The accounts have been seized.

The seizure suggests that the gang had duped several people with different modus operandi in many states. The woman befriended people through social media and then duped them. The gang was operating a bogus fast food shop in Vikaspuri area of Delhi. They were produced in a court on Tuesday. The court remanded them in judicial custody.

The police have seized 25 mobiles phones, seven Point of Sale (PoS) machines, 35 ATM cards, passbooks of 15 bank accounts, 13 cheque books, two laptops and 25 SIM cards. In the laptop, the police have found bogus custom department and income tax certificates which they used for defrauding people.

“It has come up during investigation that the gang duped people in many different ways. They had sent messages to 5 lakh people recently trying to dupe them on the pretext that they had won prices,” said a police officer.

At least 15 more victims have come forward and told the police that they were duped by the gang.

The gang was busted after CRPF jawan belonging to Sikar district in Rajasthan registered an FIR. The woman befriended him WhatsApp and Facebook. She sent some air tickets and told Suresh, currently posted in Telangana, that she would be travelling to India with US$50,000.

The Nigerian nationals – posing as customs officials – called Suresh and told him that his friend – the woman – was in their custody because she was carrying foreign currency without valid documents. In order to release her, they demanded money. Suresh deposited about Rs 20 lakh over a period of seven days in the bank accounts provided by the gang members.