Farmer loses Rs 11L in online fraud

Mahesh Sharma

Raikot, December 2

Barnala resident Hardeep Singh Dhaliwal, who had cultivated his maternal uncle’s land at Shehbazpura village in Ludhiana this kharif season, was duped of Rs 11 lakh by unidentified suspects. The amount was swindled from his bank account on November 28 and 29.

According to an FIR registered under Section 420 of the IPC, the swindlers had transferred the amount from Dhaliwal’s bank account.

“I was shocked when I read the messages on my mobile phone on November 28 that Rs 13.5 lakh had been debited from my account,” Dhaliwal said, adding that the swindlers, posing as bank officials, had asked him to download the AnyDesk application on his mobile phone. In all probability, the application was used by the suspects to dupe the farmer.

Dhaliwal said one of the suspects had introduced himself as Sunil Kumar and had also produced his PAN card as identification proof.

The next day, Dhaliwal was relieved when he found that Rs 4.5 lakh had been transferred back to his account. However, later, the swindlers succeeded in transferring another amount of Rs 2.15 lakh. In all, an amount of Rs 11,14,980 was siphoned off by them.

Investigating officer Jaspreet Kaur said a probe had been launched in the case.

The farmer had received Rs 19 lakh as proceeds from the sale of paddy this season. He had only used a part of this amount, he said, and had preserved the rest for the wedding of his niece.