Three persons from Zimbabwe were arrested from Mohali in Punjab on Saturday for allegedly duping a Tollygunge resident out of over ₹1 crore in an investment fraud.
A team of officers from Kolkata Police arrested Tinashe Gadzikkwa Praise, 22, Malvern Matumgamire, 25, and Nyamhunga Lenon Kudakwashe, 23, from different apartments in Mohali’s Kharar, where the three had been living for some time.
Tinashe is from Mutare; Malvern from Masvingo; and Nyamhunga from Bindura, the capital of the Bindura district, the police said. All three cities are in Zimbabwe.
“The three Zimbabwean nationals lured Sandip Guha of Tollygunge to invest in the trading of kola nuts and assured high returns. They created fake email addresses, WhatsApp accounts and used fake letterheads of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and a global healthcare pharmaceutical company in the UK to convince the victim for investing,” a senior police officer said.
Kola nuts are derived from kola trees, which grow in the tropical rainforests of Africa and are popular for their high caffeine content.
Investigators said the three Zimbabweans told Guha that this was the best time to
invest in kola nuts because there is a global demand in the pharma industry for these nuts. They managed to convince Guha that the bigger the investment, the higher the returns.
“Even the WHO is considering the health benefits of kola nuts, the three told the complainant impersonating officials of the pharma giant and the WHO,” the officer said.
However, after Guha transferred ₹1 crore to the bank accounts of the trio, they could not be contacted.
This is when Guha realised he had been duped. He lodged a police complaint on May 20.
A case was drawn up at cyber police station under the Information Technology Act, and a probe was initiated.
A team of officers began checking the details of the transactions and followed the money trail.
Senior officers said the three were traced to a location in Punjab and a team from Kolkata Police left for the state.
Following the arrest of the trio, six mobile phones, a laptop and some bank documents were seized from their possession.
