Nigerian Remanded In Prison Custody In India For Using Gift Bait To Dupe Woman Of N480,000

A Nigerian national Mathew Nwuagiolu (27) has been remanded in prison custody for allegedly duping a 35-year-old India woman to the tune of Rs90,000 (N480,000) on the pretext of marriage last year.

Nwuagiolu, who leaves in Noida in  Uttar Pradesh of India was taken into custody on Saturday by a police team, led by inspector Santosh Barge from the cyber police station, and seized a laptop, six mobile phones, pen drives and other documents from him.

According to TimesofIndia, a Delhi court sent Mathew in transit custody remand till May 29 when he will be brought to Pune to probe his involvement in other matrimonial fraud cases.

The woman, a bank official, had created a profile on a matrimonial site. Mathew, posing as an US-based pilot Ravish David, expressed his interest in her profile in October, 2018. They exchanged messages on a social networking site and started talking on the phone after the man told her that his father was an Indian national.

On November 2, Mathew told her that he had purchased a gift from Poland and was sending it via courier. He also posted the receipts on a social networking site.

The woman then received a call from a person claiming to be a courier firm official. He said that a package had been received under the ‘VIP category’ and requested her to pay Rs1.8 lakh as charges for releasing the parcel.

The charges were reduced to Rs1.10 lakh after she refused to pay. The woman, at the request of Mathew, transferred Rs90,000 via net banking to two bank accounts. The caller asked for the balance amount, but she refused.

The woman got suspicious after Mathew switched off his cellphone. An inquiry by the woman revealed that there was no pilot by the name of Ravish David. Realising that she had been cheated, she lodged an FIR with the Vishrantwadi police on May 4.

The Nigerian had come to India on a business visa and obtained education up to standard X.