The Bengaluru police arrested an African national, who impersonated an Indian groom settled abroad on various matrimonial sites and duped two women in the city. According to the police, the arrested person has been identified as a Nigerian national named Bright Mudukhas (25). He has been living in Vipin Garden Extension at Uttam Nagar in New Delhi. Bright is wanted in at least 10 such cases in Whitefield subdivision police jurisdiction alone.
According to the Whitefield police, he used to operate 38 bank accounts in India while operating 28 international bank accounts to divert the money collected through such illegal gains. The police have so far recovered four high-end laptops, 10 mobile phones and Rs 8.5 lakh from various bank accounts in India while Rs 6,00,485 in deposits, ranging from Rs 10,000 to Rs 75,000 from his various mobile wallets.
The police said that the accused is not a matriculate pass yet his modus operandi was meticulous. After allegedly duping a victim, Anliya (named changed), from Bengaluru, he used her account to swindle another woman, Sanusha (name changed) to the tune of US dollars 27,000.
The man is allegedly part of a five-member African gang, mainly consisting of his family members (who are now on the run). They were operating from New Delhi and committed similar types of crimes.
How the police traced the culprit
A police team led by Cyber Crime, Economic Offences and Narcotics (CEN) police station inspector Guruprasad G of the Whitefield Sub-Division told IANS that this case was registered based on a complaint filed by a victim named Sanusha on October 2. She said that her prospective groom had swindled a total Rs 24.5 lakh cash out of her account.
According to Guruprasad, Bright used the fake matrimonial ID of SWAINRAJKISHORE on Shaadi.com. He contacted Sanusha a few months ago and started chatting over the mobile phone, email, WhatsApp and Skype, too.
"Through his Whatsapp number (+447418341937), he used to chat with her regularly. He convinced her that he is a civil engineer with a reputed firm, assigned to go on a project site in Malaysia for a couple of days work from Scotland," the police said.
The officials added that “after his few days stay in Malaysia”, he called Sanusha again, claiming that his account in Scotland was frozen for some reasons and he had made purchases for construction materials for the company. He said that he was supposed to make some payments in order to go back to Scotland. He asked her to send some money, assuring Sanusha that he would refund it. "Worried over her prospective groom in trouble, Sanusha agrees to transfer Rs 24.5 lakh to him, only to realise that she had been duped," Guruprasad explained.
After receiving a complaint, when the police kept a watch on the account number, to which Sanusha had transferred the amount, was found to be from Bengaluru. "Initially, we thought that the account holder was the main accused, but a detailed probe revealed that she (Anliya) too was a victim like Sanusha. She, too, had fallen in his trap but she had not lost money yet," he said.
The police added that Bright had given another excuse and he had asked her to send her debit card along with pin number to withdraw money deposited by Sanusha. "Getting this important input, our team headed to New Delhi and took the help of the post office in New Delhi, where we made Bright come to the post office to collect the Debit card," he said.
The police added that when he came to the post office asking for the debit card, the CEN police team arrested him and produced before the Judge in Tihar Central prisons, secured a transit warrant and brought him to Bengaluru on Saturday morning.
His four family members, who used to assist him, are absconding and he was yet to produce his passport to the Bengaluru police.