Ivory Coast national held from Delhi for duping woman: UP cyber cops

Cyber Cell officials of Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday said they have arrested a 26-year-old Ivory Coast national from Delhi for allegedly duping a woman, whom he had befriended on Instagram, of over Rs 28 lakh.The accused and his associates are members of a gang that has duped more than a dozen women of over Rs 2.5 crore in the last two years, the officials said.Ndafirmi was arrested from Delhi on Monday by the officials of the Cyber police station in Noida Sector 36 over a complaint lodged in June last year.

Cyber Cell officials of Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday said they have arrested a 26-year-old Ivory Coast national from Delhi for allegedly duping a woman, whom he had befriended on Instagram, of over Rs 28 lakh.

The accused and his associates are members of a gang that has duped more than a dozen women of over Rs 2.5 crore in the last two years, the officials said.

Ndafirmi was arrested from Delhi on Monday by the officials of the Cyber police station in Noida Sector 36 over a complaint lodged in June last year. The accused, who has studied till Class 12, came to India in 2019, the officials said.

''Ndafirmi hails from Krayaro Didievi state in Ivory Coast. He was staying in Delhi's Mahavir Enclave area in a rented accommodation. We had received a complaint from a woman last year, who claimed a fraud of Rs 28.13 lakh with her by a person whom she had befriended online,'' Inspector Reeta Yadav, the in-charge of the Sector 36 police station, said.

''The conman had identified himself as a US resident. He engaged the woman in conversations over a period of time and then told her that he is sending expensive gifts for her. Later, the woman got call from a person, who identified himself as a customs department official and told her that the gifts are at the Delhi airport but will be released only against a certain fee,'' the inspector said.

The gang members then trapped the woman into transferring the funds to them online and also threatened to implicate her in a fake money-laundering case when she refused to oblige, police said.

An FIR was lodged under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 419 (cheating by impersonation) and 420 (cheating). Charges under the Information Technology Act were also invoked in the case, police said.

The Cyber Cell has urged people to be cautious in their online activities in order to avoid being duped or harassed.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)