A 28-year-old man was arrested for allegedly cheating the relative of a patient who is suffering from black fungus infection by promising to home deliver the drug required for the treatment at ₹3,000, police said on Sunday.
Prasant Kumar Sharma, who hails from Ghaziabad, worked as a part-time driver and was arrested on Saturday after a resident of Shahdara reported to the police, they said.
In his complaint, the man alleged that his brother-in-law was admitted at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, where he was being treated for black fungus infection. On Friday, his doctor prescribed him a medicine named Lipsomal Amphoperecin-B. Since the medicine was not available in the market, they contacted a number, which was being circulated on whatsApp groups, for help.
When contacted, Sharma assured that he would provide them the prescribed medicine and demanded ₹3,000. After the money was transferred to his Paytm account, neither had he provided the required medicine nor did he return the money, he stated.
Transactions scanned
“A case was registered in the matter and during investigation, we analysed the call detail records of the alleged phone number and scanned through the online transactions. With the help of technical surveillance and local intelligence, our team apprehended Sharma from Ghaziabad and subsequently arrested him,” said R. Sathiyasundaram, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Shahdara)
When Sharma was interrogated, he revealed that he did not have any source of income during the pandemic and hence decided to cheat people with this modus operandi. He also disclosed that he had earlier posted his contact number on Facebook as well for plasma donation, the DCP said.
Two mobile phones were recovered from him. Further investigation is under way to assess the total number of victims and total amount received by him by fraudulent means.