Fake ECI officials target elderly Pune residents in separate cyber frauds

Two elderly Pune residents allegedly lost more than Rs 13 lakh in separate cyber frauds involving impostors posing as Election Commission of India officials. Police said the accused used a fraudulent link and an APK file to compromise victims’ phones

Pune: An unidentified person posing as an Election Commission of India (ECI) official allegedly defrauded a 78-year-old Pune resident of Rs 8 lakh, officials said on Sunday.

The victim, Jitendra Kumar Ahuja, is a resident of Ghorpadi in Pune. He was allegedly cheated of Rs 8,00,015.34. A case was registered at the Mundhwa police station on October 10.

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According to the police, the accused gained Ahuja’s trust by posing as an ECI official and telling him that his documents did not match. The accused then sent him a link and asked him to enter his details.

The accused allegedly gained access to Ahuja’s mobile phone through the link and defrauded him of more than Rs 8 lakh. The incident reportedly occurred between October 1 and 3.

The police have registered a case against the unidentified accused under Sections 319(2), 318(4) and 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), and Sections 66C and 66D of the Information Technology Act.

This is the second such case to come to light in Pune on Sunday.

Earlier in the day, the police reported that a person posing as an ECI official had allegedly cheated an 80-year-old man of Rs 5 lakh online on the pretext of updating his voter ID card.

A case was registered at the Lakshminagar police station in Pune.

According to the police, the complainant, Kanjasheri Vaidyanathan Venkatesan, 80, is a retired employee of an automobile manufacturing company who lives in Pune’s Yerawada area. The accused allegedly called him, claiming to represent the ECI, and told him that he needed to update his voter ID card.

The accused subsequently instructed Venkatesan to download an Android Package Kit (APK) file. After the file was downloaded, the accused allegedly gained access to the victim’s mobile screen, compromised his banking passwords and fraudulently transferred Rs 5 lakh.

A case was registered at the Lakshminagar police station under Sections 308, 318(4) and 319(2) of the BNS, as well as Sections 66D and 66C of the Information Technology Act.

The identity and address of the accused in the second case have not yet been established.

Investigations into both cases are underway, and further details are awaited, officials said.