2 foreign nationals cheat Charminar man in guise of selling COVID-19 drugs

Hyderabad: The Hyderabad cyber crime police arrested two foreign nationals residing in Bangalore for cheating a person to the tune of over Rs. 1 lakh on the pretext of providing COVID-19 drugs. The two had registered with Indiamart as a seller of COVID-19 medicines under the name HLL Lifecare Ltd, a government company.

Jaff Declan of Cameroon and Mathias Shah of Tanzania had promised to deliver Itolizumab (three vials of 100mg) and Tocilizumab (two vials of 400 mg) injections used to treat critical COVID-19 patients to the complainant.

On 29 April, the complainant, a resident of Charminar, purchased the drugs online for his uncle who was fighting COVID-19 in a Guntur hospital. He searched for the drugs on Indiamart and shared his phone number on the website. Later, he was contacted by Rakesh Prasad Kandelwal from HLL Life Care Ltd. who assured him that he would supply the medicine within three hours of payment.

The injections would cost Rs.1,80,774, Rakesh said, following which the complainant transferred the money to the bank account of Amjad Khan. However, he did not receive the injections. The man lodged a complaint after he realized he had been cheated. A case was registered by the Hyderabad cyber crime police and the two accused men were arrested.

The police have advised people to be cautious while purchasing medicines online.