City trader duped of Rs 60 lakh

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, June 21

A gang active on the social networking site Facebook has allegedly duped a city trader of Rs 60 lakh. The Kotwali police have booked six persons, including two women, and have started a probe into the incident.

Investigating officer ASI Rajpal Singh said the accused had identified as Dr Sangeeta Sharma from Sikkim, Vivana Gilsher from UK, Mumbai residents Aliza Beg, Anil Lal and Bhahdur Sharma, London resident Toni More and Lucknow resident Vijay Aggarwal.

The police have booked the accused on the basis of a complaint by Amrik Singh road resident Vivek Manik.

He has stated that in December 2017, he came in contact with Vivana Gilsher from UK on Facebook.

During interaction, Vivana told Vivek that she worked as the director’s secretary in a pharmaceutical company that manufactured cancer medicine, for which a liquid is exported from India.

She offered him that if they worked together than they could earn good money. She gave him the number of Dr Sangeeta of Sikkim.

Vivek deposited Rs 1 lakh in the account of Dr Sangeeta for procuring samples.

Dr Sangeeta sent a sample to Vivek through courier.

In Mumbai, Vivek handed over that courier to Aliza Beg. Aliza told him that she was sending the sample for testing to a Pune lab and after getting the report she would place the next order.

The next day, another accused Toni More called Vivek and told that the sample had passed and now they require 300 litre of the liquid for which they would give him 24,000 dollars per litre.

Dr Sangeeta told Vivek that his order was worth Rs 2 crore and he had to deposit Rs 20 lakh in advance.

After he deposited Rs 20 lakh, she told him again to deposit Rs 20 lakh more twice. Vivek deposited total Rs 60 lakh in two bank accounts of Dr Sangeeta’s husband Anil Sharma.

Later, in the first week of March, Dr Sangeeta told him that she had sent his order for delivery, but as he didn’t have any licence, the consignment was caught by the border force at Nepal border. She told Vivek to send 65,000 dollars for making his licence.

Vivek got suspicious and he contacted the Nepal government. He came to know that her licence was fake.

Inspector Davinder Singh said they were trying to nab the accused through bank account details and mobile phone numbers.