A US national was saved from being cheated out of $10,000 after Kolkata police alerted the FBI about a suspected racket here that was allegedly trying to dupe the person.
Kolkata police said the cyber wing of the detective department received information that some fraudsters based in the city were trying to siphon off money from a US citizen named George Albert Schlifkin, who lives in Newark, Delaware.
"We also received the details of the driving licence of this person and shared it with the FBI. The agency in turn verified the facts and located this man. George Albert Schlifkin, turned out to be an elderly person, aged around 80 years, who lives in Delaware," said a senior officer in Labazar on Friday.
The FBI found that indeed there was an attempt to transact $10,000 from his bank account between February 9 and 14, he said. However, because of the alert raised by the FBI, which was conveyed to the bank, the transaction could be stopped just in time.
Kolkata police announced the arrests on Friday.
Acting on digital information gathered from the elderly person's bank account, the police have collected evidence against two men who were allegedly involved in this.
Police identified the duo as Fardin Hossain, 22, and Farhan Khan, 25, both residents of Entally. They were arrested on Thursday.
Both were produced before a court on Friday and have been sent to police custody till June 28.
Body found, friend detained
Bijoygarh: The body of a 37-year-old man with a head injury was found in front of an under-construction building in Bijoygarh on Friday morning.
Police said the man has been identified as Chiranjit Dutta, a resident of Regent Colony in the area.
The police said it was not clear if Dutta fell off the building or was attacked by someone. The post-mortem is likely to happen on Saturday.
Dutta was involved in the construction business.
Police have detained one of his friends who works as the caretaker of the under-construction building.
“Dutta had left home around 8pm on Thursday. He last spoke to his mother around 11pm and said he would be home soon. Past midnight, his mother had called him but the call went unanswered,” an officer said.
Initially, the friend who has been detained, allegedly failed to identify Dutta. “During questioning, he admitted that Dutta was with him on Thursday night and they had consumed alcohol,” the officer said.
OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT