The NRI coastal police have arrested a 23-year-old student from Jaipur for allegedly cheating a teenager from Ulwe. The complainant, Poonam Surve, approached the police four months ago after she learnt that ₹3.29 lakh was missing from her bank account.
Her son, Pranav, had seen an advertisement for a high-end phone posted on Instagram by Chirag Sharma, an undergraduate student from Jaipur. Mr. Sharma promised the phone for ₹10,000.
Pranav made an online payment through an e-wallet linked to his mother’s account. Mr. Sharma claimed he hadn’t received the money and tricked Pranav into making the payment multiple times between August 2 and October 12 last year. “In October, the complainant visited her bank and learnt about the transactions,” senior police inspector Ravindra Patil said.
The police then approached the cyber cell and blocked Mr. Sharma’s Instagram account and froze his bank account. When Mr. Sharma found his bank account was inaccessible, he confessed to his father. “His father asked him to surrender. His uncle brought him to us and we arrested him last week,” Mr. Patil said.
Mr. Sharma was arrested under sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Information Technology Act, and is now in judicial custody. “People should not fall for products being sold at unbelievable prices on social media. One should make such purchases only if the cash on delivery option is available,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (crime) Pravin Patil said.
