Veteran Bollywood actor Rakesh Bedi fell prey to cyber fraud recently and was duped of a hefty sum of Rs 85,000, by a person who claimed to be a personnel of the Indian Army. The actor, however, realised soon that he was being conned, and he then approached the police with his grievance.
As per his official statement to the cops, the accused fraudster identified himself as one Aditya Kumar, belonging to the Indian Army. He also shared his government and Army ID cards, and pictures of himself in Army uniform with Bedi.
The accused told Bedi that he had obtained his contact details from an online housing portal where the actor had listed a flat owned by him in Pune for sale.
Bedi stated that the conman called him on December 25 and asked him to share photos and details of the flat as he was interested in buying it.
After expressing that he wanted to purchase the flat, the accused asked Bedi to initiate a Re 1 transaction to his Army account via Google Pay. He then assured the actor that he will pay the token money of Rs 50,000 via the same UPI app.
When Bedi informed him that he had not received any money, the accused stated that since it was an Army account, the bank accounts of both the sender and the receiver needed to have similar balance, thus convincing Bedi to send him Rs 50,000.
The conman also asked Bedi to make additional transactions of Rs 25,000 and Rs 10,000, under various pretences, and the actor did them, only to soon realise that he was being scammed.
When he tried to confront the fraudster, he ceased all communication, post which Bedi filed an official complaint with the Oshiwara police on December 30.
The cops are yet to get hold of the fraudster.
