: Two Nigerian nationals have been arrested for allegedly cheating an Indian woman of more than Rs. 8 lakh.
The accused have been identified as Chukwuma Collins and Nicudemus Obinna. The victim is a resident of Goa.
The police said one of them had befriended the woman on Facebook claiming he hailed from the UK.
“He became close to the woman by concocting a story that he had lost his wife, leaving him alone to take care of their five-year-old son,” said Ravindra Yadav, Joint CP (Crime). Carried away by his story, the woman had accepted him as her “brother” and promised to help him whenever he needed her.
Web of deceit
It was around a few weeks ago that the woman received a call from the man she had accepted as her “brother”. He told her that his wife had left behind a lot of jewellery, some of which he wanted to gift the victim. A few days after the man claimed to have parcelled the jewellery to her, the woman received a call from someone claiming to be a customs officer at the Goa airport.
“The caller told the victim that the parcel had to be seized as the sender was found to be flouting certain norms,” said an investigator. The caller then went on to propose that if she paid a penalty of Rs 8.04 lakh, she could receive the parcel. The woman ended up depositing the amount in a bank account provided by the caller.
When the woman did not receive any parcel, she tried to contact her “brother”. The alleged cheat, however, had switched off his mobile phone and deleted his Facebook account.
The woman then got an FIR registered with the Goa Police. A probe revealed that the cheats were operating from Delhi. The Delhi Police were subsequently contacted.
Technical surveillance helped establish that the accused were living in west Delhi’s Mahavir Enclave. A raid was conducted on Friday, and the two were caught from their rented home. Three laptops, two dozen mobile phones, around three dozen SIM cards, seven data cards and three pen drives have been seized from their flat, said the police.
