Nigerian held for matrimonial fraud in Hyderabad

HYDERABAD: A 30-year-old Nigerian was arrested by Rachakonda cyber crime cops for a matrimonial fraud case, in which a woman from the city was cheated.

The accused, Abel Odara, a Nigerian and a resident of Greater Noida came to India on a Tourist Visa in 2014, later procured a business visa.

Odara introducing himself as Dr Ayush Tyagi came in contact with the victim through a matrimonial site and told her that he lost his wife in a car accident and has been residing with his daughter, abroad.

"After talking to the victim for weeks, he gained her confidence and shared details as he applied for Indian Visa and booked tickets to India," said S Harinath, ACP cybercrime Rachakonda.

In the month of August, the victim received a call, where a woman posing as a customs department officer said that Ayush was in their custody.

Believing it to be true, the victim sent Rs 5.45 lakh to different individual accounts as instructed by the fake customs officer and later when the accused stopped picking her calls, realised she was cheated.

"During the investigation, we found out about the modus operandi, the person pretends to stay in US or UK and talk to women on matrimonial websites and later cheat them in a similar way," added the ACP.

Odara was arrested by the cyber crime team on November 30 in New Delhi and has been brought to Hyderabad on a transit warrant. He has been booked under cheating, impersonating and forgery cases apart from relevant sections of the IT act.