It started with a casual ping, a seemingly innocuous WhatsApp message sent to a senior manager of the Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA).
It ended with the 56-year-old YEIDA official losing Rs 1.24 crore, which he gave to someone he believed was Divya Sharma, a woman entrepreneur who lived in Juhu in suburban Mumbai.
On Monday, the cyber crime department of Noida Police registered an FIR under sections 318(4) (cheating) and 319(2) (cheating by personation) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (BNS) and relevant sections of the Information Technology Act, 2000, and opened investigations.
Brajpal Singh, the YEIDA official, told police in his complaint that he had been contacted in the beginning of January from a number he did not recognise. “Hi Simran,” read the message.
Singh chose to respond – asking the sender who they were. The response – an apology for the ‘mistake’ – came quickly. A few polite exchanges followed about the apparent mix-up over their numbers.
“About a year ago, I received a message on my WhatsApp No. that read, Hi Simran, so I responded asking her who she was. She replied that she was sending the message to her friend and it was sent to me by mistake, to which I replied that it was not a problem,” Singh told the police.
But the exchanges did not stop here.
Singh and the person on the other side exchanged several messages, mostly about each other’s work. ‘She’ informed him that her name was Divya Sharma, and she was the owner of a company called Zillion Exports, and was based in Mumbai. On January 28, ‘Divya’ asked Singh how much he earned.
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“I replied, ‘The same amount that a government official earns. I first asked her why she was asking, to which she replied that she could help me earn extra money and asked me to invest in a website called ‘Golden Bridge Investment’,” Singh said in his complaint to police.
That same day, guided by ‘Divya’, Singh transferred Rs 40,000 as his first ‘investment’. According to Singh’s complaint, he started to trust ‘Divya’ after he saw a ‘return’ of Rs 23 lakh on an ‘investment’ that ‘she’ had made.
“From February 1 to November 11, I transferred Rs 1,24,44,339.76 in different bank accounts,” Singh told the police.
He said that he had tried to withdraw the money in April, which, according to the website, had grown to Rs 2.24 crore by then. However, he was informed by “customer service” that he could make the withdrawal only after he paid a tax of 30% on his gains. So Singh put in some more money as he was directed.
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And then, according to his complaint, “Divya” abruptly stopped messaging him. He repeatedly asked for his money, but failed to get any.
