Srinagar, Feb 1, The Economic Offences Wing Kashmir of the Crime Branch Jammu and Kashmir has filed a chargesheet against two accused persons in a fake international prize money scam, officials said on Sunday.
According to officials, the chargesheet has been produced in Case FIR No. 24/2017 under Section 420 RPC read with Section 66(d) of the Information Technology Act before the Court of City Munsif (Judicial Magistrate) Srinagar, after the investigation established the involvement of the accused in a large scale fraud.
The case was registered following a complaint in which the complainant stated that he was contacted through a fraudulent phone call claiming that he had won a prize of Rs 2.35 crore along with a car from a company claiming to be M/s Chevrolet Motors Promotion Limited, United Kingdom. The caller directed the complainant to communicate through an email address and subsequently demanded money on various pretexts to facilitate the release of the prize.
During the investigation, it was found that the complainant was asked to deposit an amount as customs duty into a bank account maintained in the name of Jitu Raj Johari at an SBI branch. After the deposit, the complainant was further instructed through emails to open an account in a foreign bank and deposit additional amounts as Charges of Transfer through an agency, which he arranged and paid. No prize money was ever transferred.
The probe revealed that Jitu Raj Johari, son of Anand Kumar Johari, resident of Faridabad, Haryana, and Suresh Thakur, son of Ramesh Thakur, resident of Muzaffarabad and presently residing in Delhi, were actively involved in the commission of the offence and had fraudulently duped the complainant of lakhs of rupees.
Officials said that based on oral, documentary and corroborative evidence collected during the course of investigation, offences under the relevant provisions of law were established against both accused persons, following which the chargesheet was presented before the competent court for judicial adjudication.
