PITHORAGARH: A retired government school teacher in Uttarakhand lost Rs 28 lakh to a cyber gang from Odisha that said they were "calling him from the Mumbai-based popular TV game show Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) for winning a Rs 1 crore lottery".
A cyber fraudster with an engineering degree was nabbed from Odisha a few weeks ago while a second gang member, a school dropout, was arrested by police in Rishikesh on Friday.
Rajendra Singh Karki
, 62, the victim, belongs to Bankot village in Pithoragarh's Berinag. Both the accused -- Afroj Ali and Altaf Ali (in their mid-20s) -- belong to Odisha's Kendrapara.
Pithoragarh SP Lokeshwer Singh said on Saturday, "Fraudsters told retired teacher on WhatsApp some time last year that his phone number was randomly selected by the KBC and he was the lucky winner, and he should pay Rs 28 lakh for GST and income tax to avail the lottery amount. Convinced, the teacher made online transaction and later came to know he was duped."
The SP added: "An FIR was subsequently registered against some unknown persons under IPC section 420 (cheating). Investigation has been going on since early this year and recently we achieved a breakthrough when Afroj Ali was held in Odisha."
Investigating officer, Harish Puri, said, "The accused have several bank accounts and they deposited money on different dates to avoid suspicion. They used a WhatsApp group to send messages and mainly targeted the elderly. We are now investigating the case in detail and bank accounts of the accused have been traced and scanned."
In a separate
cyber fraud
case related to Pithoragarh, police arrested a man, Prince Kumar, from Bihar. The accused allegedly duped Himmat Singh, a resident of Pithoragarh, of Rs 20 lakh after promising him a "cement agency".
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