A 28-year-old technology graduate has been arrested by Delhi Police from Uttar Pradesh's Mau district for duping grieving parents by giving them false hope that their children have been found. The accused used to keep track of people whose children had gone missing and dupe money by telling them that their children had been found. He used to demand a small amount of money between Rs 2,000 to Rs 40,000 so that nobody suspected him.
The accused has been identified as Shyamsundar Chauhan, 28 from Mau in Uttar Pradesh. He's a graduate in Computer Applications.
The matter came to light after a complaint was received on December 15 from a person, a resident of Burari at Wazirabad police station regarding the disappearance of a girl.
"All the codal formalities were followed by collecting the details of the missing persons and uploading them to the missing person's portal of the Delhi Police. On the same day, the family of the victim received a call from a person who told the family that he knew the location of the missing girl and could tell them about her whereabouts," said the Deputy Commissioner of Police (north) Manoj Kumar Meena.
A few days after registering the complaint, they received a call from the conman who posed to them as some official saying their child had been found but they need to transfer Rs 8,000 so that he could brought back.
The grieving parent transferred the money using the QR code sent by the accused but they never heard from him after that, or any other information about their missing child.
When no further development took place, the parent approached police and informed them about this incident.
Speaking on the matter, Manoj Kumar Meena, Deputy Commissioner of Police, North Delhi said that in the last few days they received several complaints from parents that their missing child had been found and that they had paid money to police personnel but got no response after they transferred the amount.
What is the modus operandi of the conman?
Explaining the modus operandi of the accused, the DCP said that Chauhan used to contact the given number of victims' family members.
"The perpetrators pretended to be caretakers, falsely claiming to have the missing person in his custody. Deceptively, Chauhan along with his associates solicited funds from concerned family members, often using emotional manipulation and false promises to ensure the safety of the missing individual," said the DCP.
These deceptive actors employed online tactics, presenting QR codes for monetary transactions. Families, desperate for the well-being of their loved ones, succumbed to these schemes, sending amounts ranging from Rs 2,000 to 40,000.
During the investigation, the police team observed that a similar case had been registered in Wazirabad police station and other parts of Delhi, indicating that the culprit had duped 904 people across the city using the same modus operandi.
The DCP said that unfortunately, the relatively low amounts often discourage families from reporting complaints against him.
The accused was traced and arrested by the police team. During interrogation, Chauhan disclosed that he downloaded information about the missing person from the ZIPNet and other such government websites.
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