Cheated people all across India of Rs. 83 lakh.
By Sreekanth A. Nair
The Hyderabad police arrested a couple for making a fake website of a central government ministry and cheating people using the site, reported The Times of India. The arrested, identified as Tarun Gupta and Priyanka Rao, created a fake website of the ministry of small scale industries by the name Skill Development Mentoring Services and cheated people by posted a notice inviting a fake tender.
The police have found that they have cheated to the tune of 83 lakh from many people across India.
The crime came to light when a Hyderabad-based businessman filed a complaint with the police after the tender procedures got delayed even after he paid $14,294.
Anjani Kumar, from Hyderabad, received an e-mail from the ministry on March 3 inviting him to participate in the tender. Believing the invitation, Kumar deposited $14294 in different bank accounts as earnest money.
When the tender allotment got delayed for a long time, Kumar got suspicious and inquired about the tender at the ministry office in Delhi and realized that it was a fake one. Then he filed a complaint.
Gupta was arrested from Agra and Rao was arrested from Andhra Pradesh.
The special investigation team formed for the inquiry has recovered $11,764 from Gupta. Gupta told the police that he resorted to cheating after suffering huge loss from a tele-calling business that he had run earlier.
“During interrogation, Gupta said that his wife and he had cheated a dozen people in Hyderabad, Chennai and Bengaluru using the same modus operandi. He disclosed his wife’s location in Andhra Pradesh after which she was arrested with the help of the state police,” a police official told Times of India.