UP cyber fraudster arrested for cheating Hyderabad woman of Rs 4.8 lakh

Hyderabad: Rachakonda cybercrime sleuths on Wednesday arrested an inter-state cyber fraudster, who cheated a Meerpet woman with a promise of getting her a PhD admission in a reputed university and collected Rs 4.80 lakh.

Based on a complaint lodged by the victim, a special team headed by cybercrime inspector J. Narender headed to Haryana and arrested Mahammed Raffik Panchapuri and brought him on transit remand.

The notorious offender had earlier cheated aspirants from Goa, Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and other states, said D.S. Chauhan, Rachakonda police commissioner in a press release here on Wednesday.

Police recovered a mobile phone, debit card and Rs 3,000 cash from his possession.

As the complainant was searching for PhD admissions on Facebook, the accused, who opened a fake account in the name of Nidhi Singh, displaying his mobile number, collected Rs 4.80 lakh from the victim for admission in Varanasi university, police said. After collecting the booty, he stopped taking the victim's call, police said.