Man held for duping people on pretext of installing mobile towers

A 28-year-old Delhiite was arrested for allegedly duping more than 500 people in Kerala, Assam and Maharashtra on pretext of installing mobile towers, police said on Friday.

The accused has been identified as Ritesh Sharma, a resident of Uttam Nagar, they said, adding efforts are on to nab his associates.

The accused used to target people by posting advertisements in newspapers and lured them by offering good returns for using their property for installation of mobile towers, police said.

"A case was registered wherein people were cheated online by persons impersonating as employees of a mobile tower installation company. The complainant company had alleged some persons were fraudulently using their logos, identical websites and emails, letter heads to deceive the public offering them a lucrative return for using their property for installation of mobile towers," said Deputy Commissioner of Police (CyPAD) Anysh Roy.

However, the accused was arrested with the help of technical sources, they said.

During interrogation, it was revealed that Sharma targeted people in Kerala, Assam and Maharashtra by giving advertisements in the newspapers where he would offer people to rent out their land for installation of mobile tower at lucrative returns and would then ask them for money as processing fees, the DCP said.

He has cheated people of an amount ranging from Rs 10,000 to over Rs one lakh. It is roughly estimated that he has managed to con people of around Rs one crore since he started doing this in 2015, they said.