On Saturday (15th June), the police arrested two criminals for impersonating the Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) and defrauding a former sarpanch to the tune of ₹95,000. The incident took place in the Rithath village in the Nuh district of Haryana.
The accused were identified as Khalid and his accomplice Akil. As per reports, the victim Dilbagh received a fraudulent call from Khalid 2-3 days ago.
Khalid had posed as ‘DSP Shamsher’, who used to be the victim’s acquaintance. Given that Dilbagh did not speak to the real DSP Shamsher for a long time, he did not have the latter’s number.
#Nuh Crime News: फर्जी DSP बन सरपंच और पूर्व सरपंचों को किया कॉल, लाखों की ठगी को दिया अंजामhttps://t.co/UDUKSv9QVd
— Zee Delhi-NCR Haryana (@ZeeDNHNews) June 15, 2024
The accused had used the DSP’s image as his WhatsApp DP, prompting Dilbagh to believe that it was indeed his lost acquaintance DSP Shamsher. The smartphone application ‘TrueCaller’ also displayed the name of the police official on the phone number used by Khalid.
He again called Dilbagh the following day and tried to convince the latter about the urgent need for funds arising out of a family problem. Khalid, impersonating ‘DSP Shamsher’, also shared the bank account number with the victim.
Dilbagh fell into the accused’s trap and transferred ₹95000 to the account through his brother’s PhonePe. The victim realised that he has been scammed only when Khalid called again to demand more money.
Following the incident, Dilbagh filed a complaint with the Nuh Cyber police station. The cops acted immediately on the complaint and laid a trap to arrest Khalid and Akil on Saturday.
While Khalid has been sent on one-day police remand, his accomplice has been sent to judicial custody. It has now come to light that Khalid and Akil has been involved in cheating sarpanch and former sarpanch in and around Nuh by pretending to be DSP Shamsher.
As per reports, the accused Khalid has previously been involved in the Nuh violence that took place in July 2023. At that time, he had attacked the cyber police station and pelted stones at Adabar Chowk.
Nuh – A hotbed of cybercrime
Over the years, Nuh had earned the notoriety as ‘new Jamtara’, a reference to the small Jharkhand town which became the epicentre of online frauds.
Last year in November, the Nuh Police’s Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) team busted a sextortion racket in Nuh and arrested 6 accused identified as Mastan, Ibram alias Imran, Moin son of Nasubat, Shamshuddin son of Jamil, Irfan son of Sheru, and Shahid son of Khurshid.
Further, Opindia had earlier reported that an Islamist mob broke inside the cyber police station in Nuh on July 31, 2023, using a hijacked bus during the Nuh violence. In a targeted attack, the violent mob ransacked and vandalised everything in sight with the ulterior motive of destroying crucial evidence. The Islamists also attempted to burn documents and set the police station on fire.
Later, the police informed that the attack on a cyber police station in the Nuh district of Haryana was pre-planned and aimed at destroying evidence of cyber fraud collected by the cops.