The accused had duped a mechanical engineer of Rs 15 lakh over the Internet on the pretext of a fake lucky draw
The accused had duped a mechanical engineer of Rs 15 lakh over the Internet on the pretext of a fake lucky draw
A mechanical engineer was duped by a Nigerian national on the pretext of a fake lucky draw over the Internet, announcing him to be the winner of Rs 12 crore. The Nigerian has been arrested and 27 packets of black-coated pounds, two passports and $310 were recovered from his possession.u00a0 
Not-so-lucky: The Nigerian national, who duped a mechanical engineer.
Pic/mid day
The accused has been identified as Evan Tony (38). Police said he was arrested for cheating by way of fake black dollar lottery, played over the Internet by fraudulent means. The incident came to light on November 15, when one Ravi Mogra, a mechanical engineer, lodged an FIR and stated he had been cheated of Rs 15 lakh on the pretext of winning Rs12 crore in an Internet lottery.
"The transaction of the initial amount of Rs 15,000 took place at PVR Saket when the victim met the accused for the first time. This amount was said to be for custom clearance. He remained in constant touch with this group of persons over email and deposited around Rs 15 lakh as various processing charges to receive the prize," a police official said.
The lure of RBI
The official added the accused was provided with letters purportedly issued from the RBI to convince him to make these payments to the conman. He had credited approximately Rs 5 lakh in various accounts and paid Rs 10 lakh in cash. According to police, the victim was also called to Bangalore by the accused, where he handed over to him an iron safe containing black pounds coated with chemicals, supposedly worth Rs 12 crore, to be changed to Indian currency through RBI.
The alleged persons had conned him by cleaning sample notes in his presence with a chemical which revealed that the coated papers were indeed Great Britain Pound (GBP) in denominations of 50. They also told him that since the chemical required to clean the currency had dried up and needed dilution, they needed to go to Mumbai Embassy. The complainant returned with the safe to his residence and waited for the diluted chemical to arrive. Later, the conman asked him to pay over Rs 23 lakh for the chemical, without which the coated currency given to him was of no use.
"The email accounts given by the complainant and phone details of alleged accused persons were scrutinised. It was learnt that the gang was operating at inter-state level and remains in Mumbai and Bangalore most of the time. We got information that the accused was coming to Palam Airport and we apprehended him from there," said Chhaya Sharma, DCP South District. During interrogation, he confessed to his crime and revealed he was staying at a rented accommodation in Mumbai and was a resident of Nigeria.
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