Noida techie duped on pretext of inheriting £12.5 mn of NRI with same ‘gotra’

A Noida-based software engineer was duped of Rs 60 lakh by a few conmen on the pretext of making him the heir to the fortune of a fictitious London-based NRI having the same gotra as him. The Uttar Pradesh Police has arrested three persons in the case.

According to the police, Tarun Varshney received an e-mail in January 2019 signed in the name of ‘Advocate Bruise Eddie’. “The engineer was informed of the death of an Indian-origin man Braj Varshney in a car crash in London in 2015. It was claimed that the deceased had 12.5 million pound and the engineer was chosen as his nominee due to their matching ‘gotras’ (family gene pool),” PTI quoted the police as saying.

Subsequently, Tarun Varshney started getting mails from different e-mail IDs asking him to complete some documented formalities, the police said. He was also told that 50 per cent of the money would go to advocate Eddie as commission for his work.

The conmen then told the victim that they had transferred the money to the Reserve Bank of India, Mumbai. Tarun Varshney then started receiving mails asking him to collect money from a foreign currency exchange department in Dehradun.

“Thereafter, the software engineer was asked to deposit money in 25 different bank accounts on pretexts like customs duty, registry service, and fees such as legal heir change, foreign currency exchange, among others, with the accused duping Rs 60 lakh in total from him,” PTI quoted the police as saying.

Based on the victim’s FIR, the police tracked down three individuals — Akeeluddin (30), Anees Ahmed (23) and Asleem Khan (23) — and arrested them on Friday, August 6. All the accused are native residents of UP’s Bareilly district.

The police have also frozen 25 bank accounts with Rs 13 lakh controlled by the three accused. Further probe in the case is underway.

News Credit: India Today