Delhi: Man held for duping budding singer of Rs 21 lakh

New Delhi: A 59-year-old man was arrested for allegedly duping a budding singer of Rs 21 lakh on the pretext of helping him improve his rating on a singing app, police said on Sunday.

The accused was identified as Mahavir Prasad Sharma, a resident of West Bengal who was working as a senior manager with a cement company in Shillong, they said.

Sharma was arrested in connection with a case registered at Shalimar Bagh police station here on September 7. The accused allegedly duped a budding singer of Rs 21 lakh on the pretext of helping him improve his rating on a singing app, StarMaker, the police said.

StarMaker allows its users to live stream their performances. During the live streaming, other users can give them paid gifts that can be redeemed as money and transferred to bank accounts, they said.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Northwest) Usha Rangnani said the accused was traced to Shillong through technical surveillance and arrested.

During his interrogation, Sharma told police that he wanted to make easy money and started cheating budding singers on StarMaker. He transferred the money he took from these singers to different bank accounts, the officer said.

He duped two other people in Rishikesh and Firozpur of Rs 24 lakh and Rs 8.5 lakh, respectively, the police said.