HYDERABAD: A young woman from Hyderabad, who duped several people by collecting money on the pretext of raising funds for her cancer treatment, was arrested by the police here on Thursday.
The woman collected a fund of `22 lakh and spent the money lavishly during her stay in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Police could recover only `5,000 from her bank account. Samiya Abdul Hafeez (22) of Saidabad in the city launched an online campaign in January this year to raise funds for her “brain and breast cancer treatment”.
She posted some pictures of medical prescriptions, scanning reports and hospital bills on the Internet to make her claim look credible. Saying that her father was also a cancer patient and, after getting him treated, she was left with no money, she requested the Netizens to help her.
Samiya works in Riyadh and comes to visit her father in Hyderabad who is undergoing treatment. The fundraising request went viral on social media and several people responded positively. The SBI bank account which she opened at Gunfoundry branch in Hyderabad was flooded with donations totalling `22 lakh.
In February, Samiya’s friends, who live in Riyadh, came to Hyderabad and went to the hospital where she claimed she was undergoing treatment. To their shock, the doctors at the hospital denied treating any patient with that name but said that her father was a cancer survivor.
Realising that they had been cheated, Samiya’s friends lodged a complaint with the Banjara Hills police. On coming to know that the woman had forged the prescriptions and other treatment reports, the hospital management also complained to the police about cheating and forgery by her.
Two days ago when Samiya arrived in Hyderabad from Riyadh, police got a tip-off, descended on her house and arrested her.