Four held for cheating bizman of 98 lakh

Tirupur: The cybercrime police have arrested a Nigerian national, a Uganda national and two people from New Delhi and Maharashtra for cheating a city-based exporter of 98.28 lakh in March 2022.
The arrested people were identified as James Osebhohien Lawrence, 46, from Nigeria, Operah Li, 31, from Uganda, G Mukesh Kumar Mishra, 35, of West Sagarpur in New Delhi and Umesh Ramesh Vidande, 35, of Maharashtra. James and Operah were staying at Raju Park, near Sainik Farm in New Delhi,
The complainant, a garment exporter, received WhatsApp messages from two international numbers in February 2022, police said. “The unknown senders introduced themselves as doctors James and Roslin Mary from a medical college in the US. They told the exporter that they used to buy raw materials to make medicines for cancer from a person, who procured them from ‘Krishna Enterprises in Himachal Pradesh’. They said the procurer passed away recently and requested the exporter to supply the raw materials,” a police officer said.
The scammers also introduced the exporter to a ‘representative of Krishna Enterprises’. “The exporter sent 78 lakh to the fictitious firm to buy the raw materials and received six bottles containing a liquid. The ‘doctors’ said they would travel to India to collect the bottles and asked him to send 20.28 lakh for travel expenses. After receiving the money, the duo stopped contacting him,” the officer told TOI.
Realising that he had been taken for a ride, the exporter lodged a complaint with the Tirupur city cybercrime police, who registered a case against the unidentified people in March 2022, under sections 420 of the Indian Penal Code and 66 of the Information Technology Act, 2000. Police managed to freeze 5.83 lakh.
Tirupur city police commissioner Praveen Kumar Abhinapu sent two teams led by inspector Sornavalli and sub-inspector Syed Rafiq Sikkandar to New Delhi and Maharashtra. The teams arrested James, Operah and Mukesh from New Delhi on April 20. Umesh was arrested from Maharashtra. The foreign nationals were lodged in the Puzhal Central Prison while the other two in the Coimbatore Central Prison.
Police seized 24 mobile phones, eight SIM cards, three Wi-Fi modems, four pen drives, two debit cards, two passports, a cheque book and 28,000 from them.