Man arrested for duping people by impersonating friends

A 31-year-old man was arrested for allegedly duping people by impersonating their friends and seeking help on the pretext of medical emergency, police said on Wednesday.The accused has been identified as Vishal Lodha, a resident of Beed in Maharashtra, the police said, adding they have managed to solve four cases with his arrest. The complainant saw WhatsApp profile picture and identified him as his college friend, a senior police officer said.

A 31-year-old man was arrested for allegedly duping people by impersonating their friends and seeking help on the pretext of medical emergency, police said on Wednesday.

The accused has been identified as Vishal Lodha, a resident of Beed in Maharashtra, the police said, adding they have managed to solve four cases with his arrest. The action was taken after a person named Ashok Kumar Arora filed a complaint that he was defrauded of Rs 75,000. He alleged that on March 12, he received a WhatsApp message from an unknown number and the sender claimed that he was his college friend and was presently in Singapore, police said. The complainant saw WhatsApp profile picture and identified him as his college friend, a senior police officer said. Lodha claimed his sister was in India and they need some money from Arora for her medial procedure as he was unable to make the transaction due to a network issue, the complainant said.

Arora allegedly transferred Rs 75,000 in two transactions of Rs 26,000 and Rs 49,000 from his account, the officer said. But when he called Lodha on that number to confirm the transfer, the call was not answered, the officer said. Arora then called the number of his friend Lodha who told him that he had neither called him nor requested any money, the officer said. During investigation, police zeroed in on the location of the alleged in Hyderabad and later nabbed him, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Rohini) Guriqbal Singh Sandhu said. Lodha disclosed that he has a habit of gambling and used to visit casinos in Goa. He suffered a huge loss due to which his family disowned him, police said. However, during his stint in casinos, he befriended several other gamblers. As he has lost all his money in casino, one of his friends whom he met in a casino suggested him to cheat people pretending to be their relatives/friends, police said. He used to register fake number on WhatsApp and display picture of the known of the victim/target and ask for the money on pretext of medical emergency/help, they added.

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