A case under Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code was registered in this regard.
Two persons were arrested for allegedly cheating over 100 people on the pretext of giving them Rs 25 lakh as the 'Kaun Banega Crorepati' lottery prize, police said on Tuesday.
The accused were identified as Pranav Kumar Mishra (23), a resident of Bihar's Bhojpur district, and Gautam Prasad Yadav (29), a resident of Jharkhand's Giridih district, they said.
The two were previously involved in a similar case in Haryana. After coming to Delhi, they started operating in a similar way from the Wazirabad area and cheated more than 100 people in the last nine months, the police said.
According to police, a resident of the Wazirpur area alleged that on March 4 his wife received a WhatsApp message along with an audio recording from an unknown number informing her that her mobile number has been randomly selected for a KBC lottery prize of Rs 25 lakh.
In her complaint, the woman said the accused asked to send her account number, Aadhaar number and a passport size photograph. The next day, they called her and asked her to pay Rs 10,200 and Rs 2,000 as government taxes so that she could receive the lottery prize.
The woman transferred Rs 12,200 to an SBI account. Thereafter, the accused again asked her to transfer Rs 25,000 for clearance of some government taxes. Then she realised that she had been duped by them, according to the complaint.
A case under Section 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the Indian Penal Code was registered in this regard, the police said.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Northwest) Usha Rangnani said, "Our team raided several locations and arrested the accused persons."
They disclosed that they used to cheat people on the pretext of sending them the KBC lottery prize and used the same modus operandi. After receiving the money, they stopped receiving the victims' calls, she said.
"Accused Pranav made calls to the victims... and got the money transferred. Gautam managed the bank accounts which were opened using fake documents and withdrew the cash through debit cards. They also destroyed the SIM card after cheating a victim and had got many SIM cards using fake documents," the DCP said.
Five mobile phones, 33 SIM cards, 11 debit cards, five bank passbooks and other fake identity cards were recovered from the accused. Further investigation is underway, the police said.
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