The accused was identified as Lalit Sharma, a native of Bhiwani in Haryana.
The official said that a complaint was received at Cyber police station in South district wherein the complainant, who works in a multinational company at Bangalore, stated that he planned to shift from Bangalore to South Delhi for which he searched for online ‘packers and movers services’.
After that the complainant received calls from different service providers on his mobile phone. “He received a phone call from one claiming to be [‘Gati packers & movers’ and was offered for quality services of the luggage and automobiles transportations. He booked the same for transportation of one car and some household articles from Bangalore to South Delhi and he paid Rs 2,000 as advance booking charges and paid Rs 13,000 for the parcel charges at the very same time of pick-up in advance,” said Chandan Chowdhary, Deputy Commissioner of Police (South).
After 2-3 days from pick-up of articles, the complainant received a WhatsApp call in which the alleged service provider demanded money on the pretext viz. state border Custom Charges, GST Charges, Insurance Charges, State RTO Clearance and clearance of the parcels from one state to another.
“When Sharma’s luggage was picked, the accused took over Rs 7 lakh for next 11-12 days and cheated him,” said the DCP.
During investigation, it was found that the culprit was operating from the Hyderabad area and after committing the offence, he was hiding himself in Pune.
“A detailed technical analysis and money trail was carried out. The police team mounted continuous surveillance and finally the accused was nabbed from Pune,” said the DCP.
During interrogation, Sharma disclosed that he was operating from the rented house and rented office situated at Hyderabad. “The accused revealed that he used to dupe innocent people on the pretext of providing ‘Packers & Movers Service’ through a website booking process,” the official added.
–IANS
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