The Vadapalani police have arrested a 30-year-old man for allegedly defrauding a 52-year-old man by pretending to be the Mumbai police.
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The police said the victim was T. Sriram of Kumaran colony in Vadapalani. On May 24, an unidentified person contacted Sriram on his mobile phone and claimed that he was speaking from Fedex’s Mumbai branch. The caller said a parcel with Sriram’s details containing a passport, credit card, dresses, and drugs was being sent from Mumbai to Taiwan. The caller transferred the call to another person who claimed to be from the Mumbai police. The second caller said the police would be coming to arrest Mr. Sriram. The callers asked him to send some money and said it would be returned once he is exonerated following the investigation.
Believing this, Mr. Sriram transferred ₹1,41,800 to a bank account provided by the callers. They failed to return the amount, and Mr. Sriram realised that he had been cheated. He filed a complaint with the Vadapalani police. After analysing the account details given by the accused and the phone number attached to it, the police arrested R. Praveenkumar of Periamet. The police are searching for another woman in the case.
The investigation revealed that Praveenkumar and his accomplices were defrauding people by calling them on the phone and pretending to be the Mumbai police.