Two Nigerians arrested for duping Sikkim man of Rs 82 lakh

Gangtok: The Sikkim CID arrested two Nigerians for duping a Sikkim resident of Rs 82 lakh in 2019. The duo was arrested from Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh on March 26. They were flown from Delhi to Bagdogra, aided by the Indian Reserve Battalion in Delhi and the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) in Siliguri, West Bengal.

The Sikkim CID received the case in 2019, and investigation had been underway for the last year. It was led by the Additional Superintendent of Police (CID) Rinzing Chopel Rai and Police Inspector Bikash Rai.

“The accused duo, identified as John Obilor (28) and Charles Chisyoki Nwanyan (21), had duped the Sikkim resident by placing a business proposition. They had been carrying out such business propositions in other States like Uttarakhand and Bihar as well. We retrieved 14 mobile phones, a laptop, seven debit cards, passports from Myanmar, the Republic of New Guinea and even a copy of United States Passport along with an Aadhar card and driving license from India, along with some fake certification from the Reserve Bank of India. Their laptop had documents of various of these counterfeit businesses they had conducted,” informed CID Superintendent of Police Tenzing Loden Lepcha.

Additional SP Rinzing Chopel Rai, who had been investigating the matter, stated, “They were involved in several cases across India. They were accused in a similar fraudulent case in Kerala in 2015 where they were arrested and released on bail in 2017. We have seized their accounts with links of sending money from Indian banks to a Nigerian bank. Furthermore, we learned that they initiated their travel to India on medical grounds, claiming that one of them had come to India for cancer treatment. However, when we conducted a medical test in Sikkim before their arrest, there was no trace of cancer in the accused”.

The accused have been booked under Indian Penal Code sections 420, 120b and 66b, with Sikkim Police planning to extend their arrest until other related cases are also brought to the fray from other states.