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The accused was identified as Mohammed Shariq (19), a resident of Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh. The accused has been brought to Kasaragod after being nabbed by the cyber cell police from Raebareli.
The case was registered based on the complaint of a 36-year-old woman from Madhur Gram Panchayat here.
The accused had created a fake profile on Instagram pretending to be a woman and allegedly befriended the victim pretending to be her long lost “friend from plus 2”. During the conversations, the victim shared her frustrations in life including her inability to have a second child for 14 years after the birth of her son.
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Incidentally, the woman had gotten pregnant and shared the news on Instagram.
Thereafter, the accused pretending to be a doctor, told the victim that he would send an expensive gift as congratulations. He pestered the woman to pay him Rs 7 lakhs as fees. He also threatened the woman with dire consequences if he was not paid the money. The woman had taken loans by pawning Gold and paid the accused.
A few days later, the woman later realized she had been duped and registered a complaint.
During the investigation, police found that the money was transferred to 8 bank accounts in Haryana opened with a single Aadhaar card. The fraud suspect was later identified and arrested with help from Raibareli police.
Interestingly, Shriq does not know English, however, he chatted with the woman in English. Police said they are on the lookout for another accused, identified as Nusrat, who helped Shariq type in the English messages on Instagram.
Police said all 8 bank accounts have been seized, while efforts are underway to take Shariq under police custody from judicial remand for questioning about Nusrat.