The VP Road police on Wednesday arrested a 48-year-old Nigerian national from New Delhi for allegedly duping a diamond broker from south Mumbai of Rs 1.16 crore.

The police said the accused, Akeredolu Joseph Olajide, is part of the larger group that creates fake accounts on social media, approaches people through these accounts and then dupes them under the pretext of sending gifts.

The gang approached the diamond broker, a resident of Girgaon who has an office at Bharat Diamond Bourse in BKC, on Instagram on October 10, last year.

The profile was created under the name of a woman, Alex Zendra, said police, adding that the accused claimed to be a captain at a ship in the United Kingdom.

“We started chatting on WhatsApp and after a few days, Zendra told me that she loves me and wanted to marry me. She aspired to start a business with me in Mumbai… On October 17, she sent me a video in which she showed branded shoes, gold chains, watches and US dollars and said that she is sending them for me,” the broker said in his statement to the police.

While he was awaiting the parcel, the broker received a call from a woman posing as a custom official. She told him that the
parcel has been seized at the airport and the broker has to pay money to get it released. He ended up transferring Rs 1.16 crore to multiple bank account numbers.

Amid this, the broker also visited New Delhi, where he met a man – who also posed as a customs official – who showed him the US dollars that had been seized from the parcel. Later, sensing something amiss, the broker approached the VP Road police station, where a case of cheating under Indian Penal Code and the Information Technology Act was registered.

During probe, the police found out that the accused is based in Delhi. A team comprising Sub-Inspectors Dhavesh patil and Siddhesh Joshte as well as constables Prabhakar Aher, Sachin Sarwade and Kumar Pathrut, was dispatched.

“It was difficult to trace the accused, as all the phone numbers from which they had contacted the broker were switched off. We could not get their exact location,” said the officer.

But as the callers had used the Internet to get in touch with the complainant, the police got the Internet Protocol Address and traced the broadband service provider in New Delhi. “We then managed to get the name and photograph of a suspect, which was sent to the complainant. After he identified the suspect as the one he had met in New Delhi, Olajide was arrested from Tilak Nagar,” the officer said.

He was brought to Mumbai on Wednesday and arrested. He was produced in court, which has remanded him in police custody.  The police have seized several cellphones and fake US dollars from him.