A 28-year-old man was arrested for allegedly duping over 900 families of missing people on the pretext of sharing location and providing basic necessities to those missing, police said on Wednesday.

The accused has been identified as Shyamsunder Chauhan, a resident of Uttar Pradesh's Ranipur Mau, they said.

The accused used the online portals of the government agencies to collect the family details of the missing persons to cheat them, police said.

A complaint was received at the Wazirabad police station on November 15 regarding a girl missing, said a senior police officer, adding all the codal formalities were followed by collecting the details of the missing girl and uploading them to the missing person’s portal of the Delhi Police.

The victim's family received a call the same day from a person, who told them that he knew the location of the girl and could tell them about her whereabouts, the officer said.

The officer further said the man demanded money for telling the location and sent a QR code to receive the payment, adding that the accused person scammed the girl's father of Rs 8,000.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), North, Manoj Kumar Meena, said that the suspect was identified during investigation and traced in Uttar Pradesh's Mau.

It was revealed that the accused had duped 904 people across the city using the same modus operandi, he added.

The accused person downloaded information about the missing person from the ZIPNet (Zonal Integrated Police Network) and other government websites, and contacted the given number of the family members of those missing, police said.

The perpetrator pretended to be caretaker, falsely claiming to have the missing person in his custody, they said.

He took money from the family members often using emotional manipulation and false promises to ensure the safety of the missing individual, police said.

The DCP said that the perpetrator claimed to have the complainant's child in front of him, lacking even basic necessities.

Chauhan was later arrested, he added.

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