Delhi Police bust gang which duped woman of Rs 11 lakh via Telegram 'paid tasks' scam

New Delhi, July 12 (IANS) The Cyber Police Station of North District has busted an inter-state cyber fraud gang that cheated a Delhi woman of Rs 11 lakh by luring her with fake online “paid tasks” on Telegram.

The operation led to the arrest of five accused from Meerut and Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh.

The victim, a resident of Shastri Nagar, came across a Telegram link offering lucrative returns for completing simple online tasks. She transferred Rs 11 lakh in multiple transactions before realising the fraud and filing a complaint through the NCRP portal. A case was registered, and an investigation was launched.

A police team led by Inspector Manish Kumar and supervised by ACP Hemant Kumar Mishra carried out a detailed technical analysis of over 100 mobile numbers and bank transactions.

Continuous tracking and raids across Meerut and Muzaffarnagar led to the arrest of Kartik Saini and Varun Kumar on June 25, followed by Sharim Khan on July 7, and Humaid Khan and Suhail Saifi on July 9.

During interrogation, the accused revealed a layered scam involving two separate chains. Kartik and Varun opened bank accounts and shared access details with a person named Yash, who routed the fraudulent funds and paid them commissions.

Meanwhile, Sharim, Humaid, and Suhail provided similar services in a parallel chain.

Humaid claimed he acted on the instructions of a friend, Sameer Malik, currently studying MBBS in Russia.

“A total of five mobile phones, five SIM cards, three cheque books and two ATM cards were recovered from the accused persons. As per the data analysis of these mobile phones, it was found that accused Humaid Khan and Varun Kumar are key conspirators supplying bank accounts to fraudsters,” said DCP Raja Banthia.

Police suspect a wider racket is in play, with several similar cases linked to the same bank accounts. Further investigation is underway.

--IANS

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