Ranchi, Dec. 15: A Delhi-based mass communications diploma-holder has been arrested by Jharkhand CID (cyber crime branch) for allegedly swindling Rs 80 lakh from a Ranchi-based retired executive of Central Coalfields.

Personable and smart, Ashish Kumar Choubey, 23, who has at least three pseudonyms, was today sent to Birsa Munda Central Jail in judicial custody.

His victim, Anand Kumar Roy, 68, who had retired from Central Coalfields as a general manager and after that worked in Jindal Steel and Power as well, was credulous enough to be duped by the smooth-talking Ashish over phone into investing heavily in "lucrative" insurance schemes since 2014. Yesterday, the cyber cell tracked Ashish's location - his rented flat in Delhi - through one of those phone numbers.

Ashish had never met Roy in person. In fact, Roy never even knew his real name, for Ashish called up as insurance agent Virendra Kumar Agrawal. Even when Roy came to know he had been swindled of his money, he filed the FIR on December 1 against Virendra.

"Roy lodged an FIR on December 1 this year. He alleged one Virendra Kumar Agrawal, an insurance official, swindled him. On the so-called agent's instructions, Roy had deposited amounts at Ashish's bank accounts through net banking. It had been going on since 2014, but the maximum sums had been swindled between July and November this year," said DSP cyber thana Shradha Kerketta.

Ashish has been booked under Section 419 (cheating by impersonation) and 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the IPC and 66 (D) of Information Technology Act. However, police suspect he was part of a syndicate and will probe further for the names of other aides and victims.

Virendra apart, police have found out that Ashish operated under other names like Shailendra Kumar and Sandeep. Police have recovered two voter cards, an Aadhaar card, two PAN cards, three ATM cards, chequebooks and passbooks of four banks and a seal of a private company from him.

As to why an educated, salaried person like Roy trusted an "insurance agent" who he hadn't even seen with huge sums, the police said the retired executive had been won over from the first telephonic call. "Ashish, calling up as Virendra, was well informed about Roy. He knew Roy's date of birth, bank account and PAN card details," said DSP cyber thana Shradha Kerketta.

However, DSP Kerketta said they would also question Roy in detail on the attractive insurance schemes that Ashish had to convince him to part with the money, the details of the so-called insurance schemes and whether any documentary proof had been emailed/posted to him about the investments.

Ashish got a mass communications diploma from a private institution in Delhi earlier this year. Living an affluent life in Delhi, he had told his farmer father Ravindra Nath Choubey in Uttar Pradesh that he also worked at a call centre to avert suspicion.