Aussie scammer vows to repay ‘victims’ from ₹4 crore pension fund; Kerala cops nab him from posh Indore flat

Kochi: Visa fraud is hardly news in Kerala. It usually follows a familiar script: a scammer gets rich and vanishes into thin air. But the case of  Zakiullah Z Parker, a 58-year-old Australian national residing in India for the last few years, comes with a bizarre twist that left even the police surprised. Parker wasn't just scamming people to get wealthy, but he claimed he was merely “borrowing” the money to pay his bills until his 60th birthday. His grand plan? To survive on the savings of hopeful job-seekers until a massive ₹4 crore pension fund was unlocked in Australia, at which point he promised to pay back every single rupee to the victims he conned. While Parker was busy playing this game, the Kerala police weren't interested in his “gentleman’s promise” and tracked him down to a luxury hideout in North India in connection with a cheating case registered in Kochi.

​The curtain fell on Parker’s elaborate performance after a woman from Pookkattupadi in Ernakulam, a former Dubai expat looking for a better life in Australia, fell into his digital trap. Parker was no amateur; using his polished Australian accent and the professional gravitas of a man who actually spent two decades in the sports industry in Australia, he posed as the CEO of ‘Focuz Sports’, an Australian firm, on LinkedIn and Facebook.

He convinced her he was her ticket to a job visa, luring her into transferring ₹5.8 lakh for “processing” between June and November 2025. The illusion shattered only when she contacted the actual company via their website, when promises did not materialise, and found a scam warning featuring the very 'CEO' she had been talking to. Following this, she filed a complaint with the police.

​The investigation led a team from the Thadiyittaparambu police, under Ernakulam Rural police district, on a 14-day cross-country chase. At the direction of Perumbavoor ASP Hardik Meena, Inspector KN Manoj launched a probe with a team comprising Sub-Inspector NK Jacob, Senior Civil Police Officer KK Shibu, and CPO Mithun Mohan.

Speaking to Onmanorama, Shibu explained that the breakthrough came from the digital paper trail. “Initially, using the bank account details to which the complainant transferred the money, we traced the accused to Dehradun,” Shibu said. While the address of the account holder they received from the bank was empty, they found Parker’s history from the local police that he had spent three years in a Dehradun jail for a similar cheating case between 2021 and 2024, but had fled after getting bail.

“He is an Australian citizen, born in 1968 to an Australian couple during their trip to India. He spent his childhood in India before returning to Australia for higher studies. He later married and had two children. He worked with a sports firm there, but developed a gambling habit and suffered heavy financial losses. As a result, he became estranged from his family, and they eventually separated. He later moved to Dubai, where he worked and was involved in illicit relationships with women. He returned to India in 2019 and has been residing in Dehradun since then," Shibu said.

Tracing his CDR details, the search eventually shifted to Indore. Tracking his calls, they found him frequently contacting a woman named Manisha, to whom he had transferred ₹3 lakh. “We tracked her down, and she told us that he was in Indore only and showed us where he lived,” Shibu said.

However, the arrest came with a dose of drama. They found his flat, number 703, locked from the outside. "The caretaker noticed that the lock had been placed in a way that made the flat appear locked from the outside, so that no one would disturb him or suspect anything. Inside was Subham Mir Singh, the new identity he had assumed using a fake Aadhaar card. He was paying ₹25,000 in rent and ordered everything online, rarely stepping out of the apartment,” Shibu added.

The police, with the help of the caretaker, eventually tricked Parker into opening the door by claiming there was an urgent kitchen leak. ​Once in custody, Parker’s confession left the team stunned. He revealed he was a former sports firm employee in Australia and a gambling addict who had lost his wealth and family back home. He admitted he targeted Indians because he believed their ‘migration fever’ made them easy marks.

"Since hygiene is 'very important' to him, he chose to live in Indore, India's cleanest city, after being released from jail in Dehradun. He said he would get his retirement benefits, which amount to more than ₹4 crore, only at the age of 60. Since he could not stay in Australia, he chose to be in India until then to meet the expenses and cost of living through fraud,” Shibu said.

Parker did not have any friends in India except for a few relationships with women. He used all the money to cover his daily expenses, buy electronic items, and travel. "He loves music and has a harmonium in his flat. He even composed a few tunes during his leisure time," Shibu said.

On initial inquiry, the police found that his account was partly true. He had been operating alone until he offered Manisha a job as a "clerk" and began using her as an aide in the fraud, including routing transactions through her bank account, after realising that the Kerala police were closing in on him in the latest case. He was not engaged in cheating on a continuous basis; instead, whenever the funds in his account were nearly exhausted, he would identify a new victim and carry out a fraud. The police also uncovered a cheating case against him in Pune, in which he avoided imprisonment by repaying the amount with financial assistance from his sister in Australia.

Despite the fraud, Parker appeared to believe in his own twisted code of ethics. "He even said that once he received his pension benefits from Australia within two years, he would repay all those he had cheated. He asked us to give him some time and said he would prove that he is a man of his word,” Shibu said.

The 14-day manhunt ended on February 12, when Parker was brought back to Kochi. He was produced before the court and remanded to the Muvattupuzha sub-jail.