Software engineer duped of Rs 1.39 crore by con artist using multiple fake identities

PTI, Jul 10, 2024, 5:11 PM IST

Bilaspur: A software engineer was taken for a ride by a 33-year-old con artist who utilised his mimicry skills to assume different fake identities, including a potential bride, an Income Tax judge and an RBI official, to cheat him of Rs 1.39 crore, police said.

As this is not enough, the accused, Rohit Jain, also posed as a loan recovery agent to swindle Nitin Jain, who hails from Bilaspur but working in Pune for a multinational company.

Rohit was apprehended from Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday and brought to Bilaspur by the police, an official said, Rohit initially met Nitin at the house of the latter’s brother in Pune, investigators said.

“When Nitin expressed his desire to get married, Rohit showed him photographs, one of which Nitin liked. Subsequently, Rohit posed as the potential bride using his mimicry skills and called up Rohit, extorting Rs 30 lakh for medical expenses and other needs of the ‘woman’,” police said.

Rohit then posed as the woman’s cousin and took another Rs 30 lakh, according to police.

Police said Rohit used to communicate with Nitin either on the phone or through online chatting.

Rohit’s deceit did not end there. He impersonated a Chennai-based property tax official, extracting Rs 15 lakh from Nitin for property payments.

Later, posing as a Hyderabad-based Income Tax judge, he took Rs 20 lakh by concocting a story about the arrest of the woman whom Nitin wanted to marry, claiming she had come to sell one of the family’s properties in the Telangana capital.

Finally, Rohit impersonated an RBI official, demanding Rs 20 lakh for unpaid loan instalments Nitin had taken from loan apps.

He also posed as a loan recovery agent of various apps to extort money from the complainant.

The police, conducting a technical analysis of various bank accounts and call detail reports, traced Rohit to Maihar city in Madhya Pradesh. During his arrest, the police seized four mobile phones and 11 SIM cards and froze 30-40 bank accounts.