Woman’s suicide over gift scam: West African man held from Delhi

CHENNAI: City police arrested an Ivory Coast national in connection with the death of a young woman, who was cheated in his ‘gift parcel scam’ and died by suicide 10 days ago fearing a probe by International police.

A police team led by the Secretariat Colony Inspector Kamalakannan traced the accused to New Delhi from where he was operating. The arrested person was identified as Moussa (30), who came to India in December last year, police said.

Moussa is among the many African nationals, who are involved in an online gift parcel scam, wherein they befriend people through matrimonial sites and social media websites by assuming a different identity and then make the victim shell out money by making calls posing as customs agent, narcotics officials etc.

The accused had befriended the victim S Ashwini (20) through Instagram by posing as a Londoner a few months ago and after establishing a friendship with the victim, he told her that he had sent her a gift parcel. Ashwini’s father is a cemetery worker and she recently finished college, police said.

On July 6, Ashwini’s family found her unconscious and moved her to a hospital where she was declared brought dead.

A police probe revealed that the victim received a call from a person, who introduced himself as a customs officer and told Ashwini that there was foreign currency found in the parcel sent to her and demanded that she pay Rs 45,000 to receive it. The ‘customs officer’ further threatened Ashwini that he would inform Interpol if she failed to pay. Ashwini paid up to Rs 25,000 in instalments and then took her own life. Based on a complaint from her family members, the police registered a case.

On tracing the money trail, police found that the money was deposited in the account of a woman and cash was withdrawn from one of the ATMs in Delhi. Police teams rushed to Delhi and with the help of CCTV footage from the ATM and inquiries in the neighbourhood, they arrested the accused when he came to withdraw cash again. He was produced before a magistrate in New Delhi and after obtaining a transit warrant, he was brought to the city.