KOLKATA: The West Bengal police arrested a man from Chennai on charges of duping a private hospital in Kolkata of crores of rupees through a cyber scam, officials said on Saturday. The police said that the accused, identified as Sikandar Bacha, was arrested in Chennai and brought to the Bidhannagar Police Station on transit remand.
A portion of the defrauded money of Rs 30.72 lakh has also been recovered from the accused. According to the police, earlier this month, Atanu Mukherjee, vice-president of a private hospital in Baguiati in north Kolkata, received a WhatsApp message from an unknown number.
The sender’s profile picture displayed that of the hospital’s managing director, Prashant Sharma. In the message, the impostor claimed that he was no longer using his old phone number and would henceforth use the new number for all company-related communication.
Believing the message to be genuine, Mukherjee responded. The following day, Mukherjee received another message from the same number, instructing him to transfer a large sum of money from the hospital’s account to another bank account.
Assuming it to be a direct instruction from the managing director, he complied. It was only later that he realised he had been scammed and had fallen victim to cyber fraud.
Subsequently, Mukherjee lodged a complaint with the Baguiati police, following which an investigation was launched. During the probe, the police identified the bank account that was used for siphoning off the money and traced it to Tamil Nadu. A team was dispatched to track down the accused in Tamil Nadu.
“The accused, Sikandar Bacha, was arrested in Chennai. He was brought to the police station on transit remand and produced in court, which remanded him to seven days of police custody. The investigation is on to ascertain whether anyone else was involved in the crime,” said a senior officer of the Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate.
Meanwhile, the police have recovered Rs 30.72 lakh of the stolen amount so far. Efforts are underway to trace and recover the remaining amount, the police said.