An engineering student has been arrested from Pathankot in Punjab for allegedly duping 47 people on the pretext of providing ICU set-ups and oxygen cylinders at home for their Covid-positive friends and relatives.
The accused, Aryan Singh alias Dhananjay, 21, is a resident of Noida in Uttar Pradesh and is pursuing BTech from a renowned institute there. With the money collected from people after falsely promising them the equipment, Aryan allegedly stayed at luxury hotels in Gurgaon, Noida and Jammu, the police said.
Fluent in English and a good communicator, he used Instagram to target his victims, taking advantage of the widespread use of social media to help Covid patients with hospital beds, oxygen and medicines.
The police said Aryan came up with the plan of cheating people after receiving overwhelming response to a request for help that he had posted on the photo and video-sharing app.
He allegedly used the name of a well-known foundation to gain the trust of the victims and requested them to visit the website for verification, the police said.
Aryan’s victims were from Delhi, Noida, Faridabad, Mumbai and other cities.
The fraud came to light after a relative of a coronavirus patient complained on a Covid helpline.
The complainant alleged that he had received a message on a WhatsApp group for setting up an ICU facility at home and contacted the given mobile number whereupon the receiver had introduced himself as Dhananjay and asked him to deposit Rs 3,950 as advance rent.
After he transferred the money to an e-wallet on April 30, the accused stopped responding to the complainant’s phone calls, he alleged.
Deputy commissioner of police (north) Anto Alphonse said a case under Section 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the IPC had been registered at Wazirabad police station.
The cyber crime cell team conducted a technical analysis of the mobile number and online transactions.
“As per our technical investigation, the location of the accused was traced to Jammu and his previous transactions revealed that he used to stay in luxurious hotels. His location was traced next to Radisson Hotel in Jammu. When our team reached Jammu, it was found that the suspect had checked out,” Alphonse said.
Aryan was caught in Pathankot after a long chase, brought to Delhi and subsequently arrested, the officer added.
The police have seized mobile phones allegedly used by Aryan to contact the victims and to operate his online account.
“During interrogation, it was revealed that he had posted a story on Instagram for enquiry about an oxygen cylinder and seeing the response of a large number of people, he came up with the idea of duping people in the name of setting up ICUs at home,” Alphonse said.
“He further disclosed that his number got shared on WhatsApp through several groups and he had been contacted by relatives of corona patients who were looking for ICU beds in hospitals. The accused Aryan, with his good communication skills, explained the entire process to the victims and provided an online wallet account number and UPI ID for them to transfer money,” Alphonse said.
Initially, Aryan had used his own e-wallet but switched to a different account later. He believed that the victims would not approach the police over losing a small amount of money, Alphonse said.
