NE NEWS SERVICE
SURAT, JULY 17
The police in Surat have arrested an Ivory Coast national for allegedly duping a man of over Rs 14 lakh after promising him Rs 4 crore for his kidney through a fake website of a reputed hospital, an official said Saturday.
The cyber cell of the Surat police had registered an FIR against some unidentified persons on July 13 for duping a man of Rs 14.7 lakh with the promise of paying him Rs 4 crore for a kidney, using a fake website of a well-known private hospital, the official said.
Using technical surveillance, the police nabbed Toty Dago Gregoire, a resident of Bengaluru, Karnataka, who had allegedly created fake websites of 40 to 50 hospitals, which he used to dupe people who were willing to sell their kidneys, he said.
“Gregoire is originally from Ivory Coast in West Africa. He had come to India on a student visa in 2007 and stayed back. He was earlier arrested in October 2011 for forging fake certificates,” Surat Police Commissioner Ajay Tomar said.
The accused had allegedly promised the complainant Rs 2 crore as advance for his kidney and asked him to deposit some money over several transactions to start the process, the police said.
According to the cyber cell, the accused was also involved in creating fake websites for forex trading, bitcoin investment, etc. to commit investment fraud and created fake websites that offered jobs abroad. The accused created a fake email ID in the name of a Reserve Bank of India official and used on a mobile number to lure his victims into transferring money to various bank accounts, it was stated.
The police have frozen over Rs 7.50 lakh in eight bank accounts that were used in the transfer of money from the victim, and found that the accounts were used for transactions of over Rs 1.13 crore, a cyber crime official said.
The accused has been arrested under sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating), 465 (forgery) among other sections of the IPC and Information Technology Act, it was stated.
“Similar cases have been registered in Bengaluru, and we are trying to find out about other such complaints. We are in touch with the cyber crime cells of other states for the same. We are trying to nab others who helped the accused create the websites,” Tomar said.
