NEW DELHI: A 52-year-old Iranian woman has been arrested for allegedly duping a US citizen of $700 at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport, police said on Thursday.
The accused, along with her husband and child, reportedly tricked the victim under the pretext of showing foreign currency to their child and fraudulently replaced the money with Indian notes.
The victim, identified as Baldev Singh (70), a resident of Tracy, California, originally hails from Hoshiarpur in Punjab. Singh, who has been living in the US since 2001, arrived at Delhi airport around 7.30 pm on June 20 to board a return flight to the US.
According to the police, Singh was unloading his luggage from a bus near departure gate number 7 at around 10.45 pm when he was approached by an Iranian couple and their child.
The family engaged him in conversation, asked about his travel plans and said they were on their way to Dubai. They then requested to see Indian currency to show their child. Singh handed them a Rs 50 note.
The couple then asked to see US dollars, claiming they wanted to show the foreign currency to the child. Trusting their intentions, Singh pulled out nine $100 notes from his side bag. The couple took the notes, seemingly showed them to the child and returned what appeared to be the same bundle.
However, upon closer inspection, Singh realised he had been deceived. The returned bundle had $100 notes only on the top and bottom, with five Rs 500 notes sandwiched in between—effectively replacing seven $100 bills, amounting to $700. Following the complaint, police reviewed CCTV footage from outside the terminal and identified the car used in the incident.
The vehicle was registered in the name of a woman named Beena, who is posted with the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF). During questioning, Beena informed the police that she had leased the car to an Iranian family in February, Additional Commissioner of Police (IGI Airport) Usha Rangnani said.
Tracking the vehicle’s GPS, police traced it to Saket, where the occupants were found staying in a guest house. One of the accused, Fatemah Akbari (52), was apprehended, while her husband Mojtaba Zolfaghari (55), managed to flee, Rangnani added.