Kasaragod: Instagram “friend” cheated wife of Rs 7 Lakhs, arrested | Tech Reddy

Team Udayavani, November 26, 2022, 9:34 AM IST

Kasaragod: A cyber fraud suspect who duped a woman of Rs 7 lakhs was arrested by the cyber police.

The accused has been identified as Mohammed Shariq (19), a resident of Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh. The accused has been taken to Kasaragod after being arrested by cyber police from Raebareli.

The case was registered on the complaint of a 36-year-old woman from Madhur Gram Panchayat here.

The assailant created a fake account on Instagram pretending to be a woman and allegedly befriended the victim claiming to be his “friend from addendum 2”. During the interviews, the victim shared her frustrations in life including not having a second child for 14 years after the birth of her son.

Meanwhile, the suspect created another account on Instagram claiming to be a doctor from the United States, and through his promise to the victim to help buy the necessary medicine she gave birth to another child.

Coincidentally, the woman is pregnant and shared the news on Instagram.

Later, the suspect, who was a doctor, told the victim that he would give him an expensive gift as a thank you. He demanded the woman to pay him Rs 7 lakhs as compensation. He also threatened the woman with dire consequences if she was not paid the money. The woman took a loan against gold and paid the accused.

A few days later, the woman realized that she had been cheated and registered a complaint.

During the investigation, the police found that the money was transferred to 8 bank accounts in Haryana that were opened with the same Aadhaar card. Later the accused cheater was found and arrested with the help of Raibareli police.

Interestingly, Shriq did not know English, however, he conversed with the woman in English. Police said they are investigating another suspect, identified as Nusrat, who helped Shariq write English messages on Instagram.

The police said that all 8 bank accounts have been seized, while efforts are on to take Shariq under police custody from the trial in connection with Nusrat’s case.