Noida: The Uttar Pradesh police said that it has arrested a person who duped “hundreds of doctors” across several states and which include Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and West Bengal to the tune of crores of rupees on the pretext of arranging foreign travel packages, officials said. The accused, Vishal Pandey, who identified himself as a medical representative of a leading pharmaceutical company, was arrested by the Noida unit of the Cyber Crime team from West Bengal, officials said. Pandey worked with Glenmark Pharmaceuticals as an FSO in Raipur, Chhattisgarh but lost his job in 2017 after demonetisation. He has an MBA degree and graduated from the Banaras Hindu University. He is a native of Bardhman district in West Bengal.
The case against Vishal Pandey was lodged over a complaint by a Greater Noida-based doctor who claimed a fraud of ₹ 18.72 lakh with him. “In June 2022, the Greater Noida-based doctor had lodged a complaint that Pandey had offered to arrange a family tour package to Dubai and taken ₹ 18.72 lakh through bank account transfers and Paytm transfers fraudulently,” the investigating inspector Reeta Yadav, the officer in charge of the cyber police station in Noida’s Sector 36 said. Subsequently, investigation was taken up in the case and the accused was caught from his house in West Bengal, Yadav, who led the arresting team, said.
Investigation also revealed that Pandey has duped hundreds of doctors using the same modus operandi and fraudulently made “crores of rupees”. The accused would offer a foreign trip to the doctors and their family and allegedly ask these doctors to transfer a token amount through e-wallets and net banking in the name of processing fees and then go incommunicado. Officials said the accused had cheated at least 100 doctors and earned crores through the fraud. Further officials said that Pandey had obtained membership in a tour and travel company. “He would get hold of tickets for foreign destinations and edit them online to make these seem like confirmed tickets in the name of these doctors and their family members. The doctors transferred him money through digital wallets and net banking and realised they had been duped only on reaching airports,” Yadav said.
An FIR has been lodged against him under Indian Penal Code sections 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (cheating), 467, 468, 471 (all three related to forgery of documents), and under provisions of the Information Technology Act, she said.
