Punjabi singer Pammi Bai duped of Rs 1 lakh

Karam Prakash
Tribune News Service
Patiala, December 9

After Patiala MP Preneet Kaur, prominent Punjabi Singer Paramjit Singh, popularly known as Pammi Bai, has fallen prey to an online fraud, losing Rs 1.09 lakh to a trickster who cheated him via a phone call while posing as a representative of ‘MTV Coke Studio’.

Pammi Bai told police he received a mail from a fake id of ‘Coke Studio’ which mentioned that the singer had a rehearsal for a song on February 11 and video recording the next day. 

Besides, he was asked to share IPRS number, pertaining to Intellectual Property Rights, which the singer did not have. Pammi Bai told the police that he shared his personal details. After the accused asked him to deposit amount for the rights of the video, the singer deposited Rs 52,800 in the former's account in two instalments on February 6 and 7.

On February 10, the accused told the singer that he has Rs 16 lakh in his account so he also has to deposit 1% tax on this amount. Pammi Bai deposited Rs 16,000 in the accused’s account same day. A few hours later the singer again received a call from the accused and Rs 20,000 was demanded as security fee for video recording.

Pammi Bai was then asked to pay some amount in advance for the recording.

Police said the singer deposited a total of Rs 1.09 lakh in the account of the accused in instalments.

Pammi Bai smelt a rat when he tried to board a flight to Mumbai from Chandigarh. The ticket provided by the accused turned out to be fake. The singer was informed by the accused that the schedule for the recording was postponed. On this, Pammi Bai submitted a complaint to the cyber cell department of the police.

Gurnam Singh Ghuman, Station House Office, Anaj Mandi, said, “We have registered the case after the cyber cell branch completed the inquiry. We have already started working on the case to nab the accused.”

The accused has been identified as Sahil Parizada of Faridabad district of Haryana. Patiala Police have already booked him under Section 120- B and 420 of the Indian Penal Code.