Mumbai: In a first case, octogenarian gets back Rs 2 lakh lost in power bill fraud

MUMBAI: This is the first instance out of the 100-plus electricity bill fraud cases in which the police have managed to retrieve Rs 1.99 lakh that a fraudster had siphoned from the bank account of an 80-year-old Lokhandwala resident on July 27.
The money was reversed to Chandraprakash Jaju's account within 24 hours after the Oshiwara police immediately got in touch with the payer and recipient bank and got the account frozen. Jaju lost the money while he was filling in banking details on a link sent to his mobile by the fraudster and asked to pay Rs10 to update the bill in the system.
The fraud occurred on Wednesday when Jaju received a text message warning of power disconnection "tonight at 9.30 pm as the system shows no light bill payment done for the last month".
"The cyber police sub-inspector Digamber Kurkute got in touch with the nodal officer of the two banks and got the account freezed," said Oshiwara police senior inspector Manohar Dhanwade.