Alappuzha: Kerala Police have arrested a Nigerian youth for extorting 10 lakh from an Alappuzha native after luring her on a dating app.
Enuka Arinsi Efena, 36, was taken into custody by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) from the Greater Noida area, near Delhi, after a struggle.
Interrogation revealed he has been conning Indians for a while and how he snared the Keralite.
After making acquaintance with the woman, who was an NRI, the Nigerian youth promised to marry her. Efena posed as a pilot while wooing the woman.
He even offered her a financial assistance of Rs 1.5 crore.
Enuka made her believe that cash in dollars, equivalent to Rs 1.5 crore, belonging to him was held up at the Delhi Airport and he desperately wanted Rs 10 lakh to release it from the authorities.
Entrapped, the woman gave Rs 10 lakh to him through various bank transactions. She was asked to pay an additional Rs 11 lakh for the same purpose. When she came to the bank to pay the amount, the manager, who got suspicious, informed the police.
The police formed an SIT and extended the probe to Nodia. But Enuka managed to escape from the spot when the police reached near his flat in Nodia.
But the police caught hold of his accomplice. With no knowledge about his accomplice being caught by the police, the Nigerian youth called him over the phone and asked him to come to a nearby ATM counter.
This helped the police track Enuka. But seeing the police presence near the ATM, he ran off through a six-lane road. The police chased him for almost one kilometer.
But finally, his feet slid out of shoes and he had to run without them on the road which was sweltering in summer heat. Soon, the police overpowered him.
Enuka was staying in the flat in Noida along with his wife, hailing from Ghana, and two children.
Alappuzha District Police Superintendent G Jayadev said that his modus operandi was to receive ill-gotten money through bank accounts in India and then immediately transfer it to Nigerian accounts. He will be produced before the Alappuzha Chief Judicial Magistrate on Monday.
