Nagpur: The Nagpur Cyber Police achieved a major breakthrough by recovering Rs 8.12 lakh for a victim of cyber fraud who fell prey to a ‘Task Fraud’ scheme between October 13, 2023, and October 27, 2023, authorities disclosed on Saturday.
According to police sources, Ashish Bhimrao Paunikar (31), residing at Flat No. 39, Bhageshree Nagar, Kharbi Road, received an enticing message on the social media platform Telegram from cyber fraudsters. The message promised part-time or full-time job opportunities with earnings ranging from Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000. Subsequently, the fraudsters added Ashish to the Skysnack Group and assigned him various tasks. Using the pretext of security deposits, they siphoned Rs 14.62 lakh from Ashish’s account. Despite his requests, Ashish did not receive any refund from the fraudsters.
Ashish then approached the Cyber Police and filed a formal complaint. Based on his complaint, the police registered a case under Sections 419, 420, 467, 468, 471 of the IPC along with Sub-section 66(D) of the IT Act.
During their technical investigation, police traced the funds to various accounts. Subsequently, they coordinated with bank officials to freeze these accounts and initiated legal proceedings. As a result, they successfully helped Ashish recover Rs 8.12 lakh.
This achievement was made possible under the leadership of DCP (Detection) and ACP (Crime), with Senior Police Inspector H R Madavi, Police Inspector Amol Deshmukh, API S G Pandre, Police Amaldar Dattatraya Ninave, Gajanan More, Karad, Gonekar, and Khope actively contributing to the effort.