Three arrested for cheating in Bakrid Qurbani scam

HYDERABAD: The Habeeb Nagar Police have apprehended three individuals for allegedly cheating people during the Bakrid festival by promising to deliver shares of Qurbani meat.

The arrested individuals have been identified as Mohd Naseer (30), Mohd Zafar Ahmed (29), and Mohd Ashfaq (27). The police have registered a case under various sections of the IT Act and Sec 5 of the Telangana Protection of Depositors of Financial Establishments Act 1999. During the arrest, the police seized Rs 23 Lakh, a Lenovo Thinkpad i5 laptop, a 64 GB Kingston pen drive, and three mobile phones.

On June 17, Abdul Bari Rehan, a businessman, lodged a complaint stating that he had paid Rs 28,000 for 10 shares of Qurbani to the Khidmath Foundation, managed by Nisar Ahmed. Despite promises, the foundation failed to deliver the shares on the festival day, and attempts to contact the responsible person were futile. Rehan discovered that many others were similarly cheated, with the foundation collecting money from over 100 individuals but failing to deliver the promised shares.

The accused had created a fake app in the name of Khidmath Foundation to collect large sums from the public, promising to deliver Qurbani meat shares during Bakrid. They engaged agents at various locations in Hyderabad to collect payments through G-pay, PhonePe, and cash. This year, they collected payments for 2,179 shares but delivered only 500, defrauding 1,049 customers.

Inspector T Ram Babu, Sub-Inspectors K Shiva Kumar and Sandeep, WPC A. Anusha, and other officers of Habeeb Nagar Police Station made the arrests, with the support of the CDR Team and under the supervision of DCP D Uday Kumar Reddy and Addl DCP Mohd Ashwaq.

Hyderabad Police Commissioner K Sreenivasa Reddy commended the team's efforts and announced they would be suitably rewarded.