Nigerian among two held for duping Australian national

Telangana CID today arrested a Nigerian national and a local man for allegedly deceiving an Australian citizen of USD 95,000.

Mohsin Agha (29), a resident of Towlichowki here and Mohammed Hassani Barua (31), a Nigerian national residing in Kokapet were arrested, a release from Telangana DGP office said.

The CID had received a complaint from the Australian citizen, who stated that in January 2016, he had come across a profile of a woman named Sarah Haimish over a dating website and in the course of time, they became very close following chats and exchange of mails to the extent that both decided to marry.
 

The woman claimed that she also hailed from Australia and was presently in India doing the business of supplying fabrics and gems. As she was to get dues of around USD 2.1 million from the government and in order to get that money, USD 2,10,000 was supposed to be paid as tax settlement.

"She requested the victim to adjust the amount so that she would go back to Australia. Conceding to her request, the complainant transferred around USD 95,000 into a private bank's current account held by Mohsin Agha," it said.

During their mail communication, the complainant was asked to come to Hyderabad, and accordingly he came and tried to get in touch with the woman, but in vain.

Realising that he has been duped, the Australian national filed a complaint with CID and a case under sections 66-D of Information Technology Act, 2000 and 420 IPC was registered and a probe was launched.

The investigation established that Mohsin Agha and Mohammed Hassani along with other absconding accused, including a woman, conspired together to commit the offence and the money that were deposited by the victim were shared among themselves.

"In pursuance of confessions of the arrested accused, incriminating material, including laptops, mobile phones, pen drives, e-mail communication that the fraudsters used in committing the offence, were seized," it said.

Further, CID froze an amount of Rs 20 lakh kept in the account of the accused.

The fraudsters confessed that they had sent attractive pictures of a fictitious woman (in order to trap him) and their female accomplice (who is absconding) used to talk to the victim over phone to make him believe.

Attempts to trace the absconding accused are on and the arrested accused were remanded in judicial custody, the release added.

Further investigation into the case is on.