Pune:
Two residents of Mumbai, Shailendra Ramesh Soni (24) and Naresh Shubhkaran Sharma (27) were arrested on Saturday by the Warje police for allegedly cheating a job seeker of over Rs 10 lakh through Internet fraud. They were remanded in police custody for seven days on Sunday.
Abhishek Girish Choudhari (28) of Warje had filed a complaint against the duo. Choudhari, a job aspirant, uploaded his biodata on a website for jobs, www.naukri.com, on July 26, 2010. A Nigerian, Jones Smith Lewis, using the alias Chon Chin, got in touch with the complainant by email and promised him the job of sales supervisor at New Climax Hotel in London.
Smith asked Choudhari to deposit certain amounts in his bank account from time to time to secure a visa. From July 23 until date, Choudhari deposited a total of Rs 10,27,770 in various bank accounts opened in the name of various persons. To prevent any suspicion, Lewis issued receipts using the stamp and address of the British High Commission, which were later found to be fake.
However, when he did not get the visa, Choudhari inquired with the ICICI Bank and Axis Bank, where he had deposited the amount. He found out that the account in ICICI Bank is in the name of one Shailesh Soni. Later, investigations revealed that the account was opened and operated by Shailesh's brother Shailendra.
Shailendra was arrested by the police. He admitted that he, Naresh Sharma, his brother-in-law Vikram Shravan Patel and John Smith Lewis, had directed Choudhari to deposit amounts in the bank accounts.
During investigation, the police found that there are similar crimes registered against Lewis and Patel at Bandra police station. Such gangs are active in Delhi, Mumbai and Thane. They extract money through the Internet by making fake promises of jobs.
Arguing for 14-days' police custody, the prosecution told the court that the police need to investigate the matter further. They also need to recover the amount paid by Choudhari in lieu of the job promised by the duo and arrest the other accomplices in the case.
However, the court remanded the duo in seven days police custody.
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