Dubai-based fraudster dupes bizman of Rs 17L through bitcoin sale

New Delhi, Nov 1: Investing in Bitcoin proved costly for a businessman based in South Delhi, who lost Rs 17 lakh to a Dubai-based fraudster, who was using the bank account of a Aligarh-based man to commit the fraud, police said.

The South Delhi Cyber Police arrested the Aligarh resident, who shared his banking access to the fraudster on commission basis in this regard.

A senior police official said that the accused was identified as Sarik Naseem. The police said that they have freezed Rs 3,84,897 from the bank account of the accused.

The official added that on October 10, they received a complaint in this regard at South Delhi Cyber police station.

The complainant alleged that he was cheated to the tune of Rs 17 lakh on the pretext of investment in USDT Bitcoin by the accused. The police after receiving the complaint filed an FIR in this regard under sections 420, 120-B read with section 34 of the IPC.

"During the course of investigation, the police team started working on various angles of the case. The complainant was enquired thoroughly to get supplementary details of the case. The team collected the bank account statement of the accused and analysed the same briefly. After that, the police coordinated with the officials of the concerned bank where the cheated money was transferred and got the account of the beneficiary freezed," the police said.

The police added that all possible technical details about the alleged person were obtained and sources were deployed to track the accused.

The police used technical surveillance and came to know that the accused was hiding in Uttar Pradesh's Aligarh.

A police team was immediately sent and Naseem was held. He told the police that he had shared his bank account details and access for mobile banking apps to a resident of Meerut, who currently lives in Dubai, on commission basis.

"The main conspirator is sitting abroad in Dubai. He had been operating from there. He used to work in a bank since 10 years and was well equipped to handle internet banking, mobile banking process," the police said.