Two Nigerians dupe secretary

Two Nigerians, Casmir Chijioke and Oliver Onyeka have been arrested by the police in India after they duped a secretary of a serving Bombay High Court judge of Rs 2.2 lakh. The duo was apprehended in New Delhi, India on Friday, April 22 after they swindled the secretary of her money and then threatened her with ‘judicial enquiry’ if she refused to send more money with one of them pretending to be a British national

According to the BKC cyber police, the complainant told them that a few months ago, she received a friend request on Facebook from a British national. She accepted the request and the two started chatting online. The man claimed to be from a wealthy family and the duo started chatting frequently. According to an officer, they became good friends and would chat almost daily. One day, the man claimed to have been admitted to a hospital due to an ailment. The victim was very upset over this and communicated this to him. He said due to his ailment, he could visit her in India but was sending her a gift from the UK.

A few days after, the woman allegedly received a call from the ‘Delhi customs’ informing her there was a gift being parceled to her place and she would need to pay some ‘handling fee’. The unsuspecting woman paid the amount but over the next few weeks, she kept receiving demands for more money under various pretexts to ‘facilitate the transportation of the gift’. She became suspicious and refused to pay any money. An officer said: “At this point, the callers, who knew she worked as a secretary to a judge, threatened her that if she did not make the payment, they would approach the judiciary and a ‘judicial enquiry’ would be initiated against her.”
A team led by inspector Ravi Sardesai began investigating the matter and found out that the “British” national was actually chatting from New Delhi. A team from the BKC cyber police station camped in Delhi for a few days before they finally apprehended the suspects. C S Rajkumar said: “The duo was produced before a court in Delhi and granted a transit remand to be brought to the city.” An officer said that there is a possibility the two suspects have cheated more people using the same modus operandi. “Once we check the laptop of the accused, we will be able to find out if they targeted more victims.”