Hyderabad’s Cyber Crime unit arrests man for duping senior citizen in FedEx parcel scam case

Hyderabad: A 42-year-old man was arrested by the Cyber Crime unit of Hyderabad in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, for his alleged involvement in a digital arrest fraud case.

The police seized one mobile phone and an IDBI Bank cheque book from him.

Acting on a complaint, the accused, identified as Ranjit Kumar, was arrested for duping a 72-year-old retired government employee from Hyderabad to the tune of Rs. 20 lakhs, according to a police statement on Wednesday.

Software engineer Kumar is a native of Parigami village in Sitamarhi district of Bihar. He was arrested by the Hyderabad police from his residence at Abhay Khand 1, Indirapuram, Ghaziabad.

Four similar cases are registered against Kumar across India, including two in Telangana. He is accused of supplying and operating bank accounts used to loot vulnerable people through fraudulent transactions.

According to the complaint filed by the retired government employee, he received a phone call from a fraudster who impersonated a Mumbai airport official. The caller falsely claimed that a parcel addressed to the victim and sent from Mumbai to Iran via FedEx containing narcotic substances had been intercepted.

The unidentified caller first asked the victim to speak to an official from the Narcotics Department. He was later made to speak with a fake representative of the Mumbai Crime branch.

During these calls, the elderly victim was coerced into sharing his Aadhaar number and other personal details. They informed him that several bank accounts were registered in his name across various states including Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana.

The fraudsters provided a bank account number and persuaded the victim to transfer the amount of Rs 19,61,045 so that all the charges against him could be removed. The senior citizen approached the cyber crime police after he realised that he was duped in the name of a FedEx parcel.