3 arrested from Bihar for duping people on the pretext of KBC lottery

Three men having connections with Pakistani nationals were arrested from Bihar for allegedly duping people under the garb of a 'Kaun Banega Crorepati' lottery, police said on Friday.

Imtiaz Ali (20), a resident of Bihar's Siwan, and Irfan Ali (20) and Santosh Kumar (22) of Gopalganj in the state were arrested on Thursday, in the course of an investigation based on a complaint by a resident of Najafgarh here, they said.

In her complaint, the woman said she received a Whatsapp call from a Pakistani number and was told that she had won Rs 25 lakh in 'Kaun Banega Crorepati' lottery, police officials said.

She was asked her to call another Pakistani number via Whatsapp and talk to one Rana Pratap Singh who would give her the details of the prize money, they said.

The woman claimed she was asked to deposit several lakh rupees towards GST and processing fees in multiple Indian bank accounts. Later, she was told that the lottery amount had been increased to Rs 45 lakh and then again to Rs 75 lakh and hence, more money had to be deposited. The accused duped her of around Rs 40-45 lakh in all, a senior police officer said.

"During investigation, police traced the location of the Pakistani nationals running the entire operation to Islamabad. Their associates were tracked down in Gopalganj, Bihar, and were later arrested on Thursday," Deputy Commissioner of Police (CyPAD) Anyesh Roy said.

The accused came to know about this scam in March 2019 as some of their friends were already associated with it, the police said.

They got in touch with the mastermind behind the operation, Rauf, a resident of Islamabad in Pakistan, and started working for him, the police officials said.

The accused operated several bank accounts. On receiving money in these, they would keep 25 to 30 per cent of the amount as commission and transfer the rest to Rauf through hawala channels, the DCP said.

On January 17, a man, identified as Pratap Barik, had committed suicide near the Titlagarh railway station in Kalahandi district of Odisha. In a video, Barik had blamed Rana Pratap Singh for duping him of Rs 70,000 in the name of KBC lottery, the police said.