Lottery fraud busted in Delhi; three held for duping railway clerk

The Delhi Police has busted a cyber fraud racket that duped a 59-year-old railway employee of around Rs 60,000 on the pretext of an online lottery, an official said on Friday.

Bheem Chand, a senior clerk in the Indian Railways, filed a complaint alleging he was cheated after being lured by a social media advertisement promising lottery winnings of up to Rs 11 crore.

According to the police, the complainant paid Rs 500 last October to purchase a lottery ticket and was later informed that he had won Rs 10 lakh.

“He subsequently received multiple calls demanding payments under various pretexts, including income tax and clearance charges, to claim the prize money. Believing the claims, he made five transactions amounting to approximately Rs 60,000 before realising he had been defrauded,” a senior police officer said.

A team conducted a technical investigation that involved analysing IP logs, email IDs, call detail records (CDRs) and financial transactions.

During the probe, police traced the money trail to a bank account opened using fake credentials, he said.

Further analysis revealed that several mobile numbers linked to the fraudulent account operated from a single device.

“Based on electronic surveillance, the accused were tracked to the Bhalswa Dairy area in north Delhi.

The police team arrested Deepanshu (27) from Bhalswa Dairy on April 4. His interrogation led to the arrest of co-accused Chandu Sharma (27) from Badli on the same day,” he added.

Subsequently, a third accused, Seeta (42), was apprehended on April 7 from Bhalswa Dairy.

During questioning, Deepanshu disclosed that he procured bank accounts and SIM cards using fake identities and sold them to fraudsters.

Police said he targeted economically weaker people, offering them money to open bank accounts that were later used for illegal transactions.

At least 10 similar complaints linked to the racket have been found on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal, and further investigation is underway.