CHENNAI: Two Nigerians, who had allegedly cheated a woman from Perambur to the tune of Rs 4.50 lakh in a gift parcel scam, were convicted by the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court in Egmore on Thursday. The accused, Paulinus Chikeluo (31) and Cletus Ikechukwu (23) had come in contact with the woman, a doctor, through a matrimonial site. The woman, a divorcee, had filed a complaint in July 2021 stating that she had received an interest request from a man on the matrimonial site, where she had registered. He had identified himself as Mohammed Salim, a doctor from the Netherlands, and he wanted to marry her.
“Salim later told the woman that he had sent her a gift parcel worth lakhs and it was at the Delhi International Airport. After a while, a woman posing as a customs official called and demanded the woman pay Rs 28,000 for clearance and then demanded Rs 77,000 as a fine since the package contained Euros,” said the police officer.
Later, she was told to pay Rs 95,000 to convert the Euros, Rs 20,000 for the delay in paying the fee, Rs 50,000 to cancel the overdue and another Rs 1.35 lakh for a flight ticket for the groom’s brother to visit India. But, the demand for money never stopped. The woman grew suspicious and refused to pay any more, but by then she had already coughed up Rs 4.50 lakh. Based on her complaint, police filed a case and special teams were formed. Their location was traced to New Delhi.
On August 31, a special team of police arrested Paulinus Chikeluo and Cletus Ikechukwu from Uttam Nagar in New Delhi. The police seized Rs 4.30 lakh in cash, debit cards, hundreds of SIM cards and laptops. They were brought to the city and produced before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court in Egmore. Chief Metropolitan Magistrate N Kothandaraj sentenced them to five years in prison and also imposed a fine of Rs 20,000 each.
Speaking about the modus operandi, a senior police officer said Paulinus posed as Mohammed Salim, a doctor from the Netherlands, the groom, and Cletus acted as Asif, his brother. The police said the fraudsters stole the names of real men from social media and even used their photographs. A probe is on to find out how many women they cheated so far, said the police.