BALURGHAT, April 19 -- A cyber fraud incident exploiting the ongoing election atmosphere has surfaced in Tapan of South Dinajpur district, where a cyber cafe owner was duped of Rs 1.16 lakh by miscreants posing as police personnel.
The victim, Kaushik Dhar, who runs a small shop near Tapan Girls' School, received a phone call on Friday afternoon from a person identifying himself as "Sumit Ballabh," claiming to be an official from Tapan Police Station. The caller alleged that funds were urgently required for expenses related to central forces deployed for election duty and asked Dhar to transfer Rs 80,000 to a specified account.
Suspicious, Dhar initially sent a relative to the police station for verification. However, as officers were busy, the relative could not confirm the claim. Meanwhile, the caller gained Dhar's trust and persuaded him to transfer money in phases-Rs 50,000, Rs 30,000, and Rs 36,000-totalling Rs 1,16,000.
The fraudster assured Dhar that the amount would be reimbursed from the treasury upon submission of an official receipt signed and stamped by police authorities. When Dhar later approached the police station with the receipt, officials clarified that no such instruction had been issued and that no such payment process exists.
Realising he had been cheated, Dhar immediately reported the matter. Police promptly registered a complaint on the cybercrime portal. A preliminary investigation suggests that the bank account used in the fraud belongs to an online shop in Nadia district, where another shopkeeper may have been unwittingly used to withdraw the money.
Dhar said: "I was shown a brief video call displaying the Tapan police station premises, though the caller's face was not visible. I trusted the call and never imagined such a loss."
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.