Nigerian arrested in India over ‘dollar scam’

The police in India have arrested Gabriel Efe, a Nigerian, for allegedly plotting to dupe a businessman through “black dollar scam”.

According to DNA, an Indian newspaper, the Nigerian was nabbed while attempting to travel to Kolkata and Bhubaneswar, parts of the country, with forged documents.

Police said the arrest was as a result of a tip-off from an unidentified source.

“According to the documents he held, he was identified as one Mike Danny Efe. On screening of his luggage, a suspicious bundle of papers which were in the size of currency notes and a bottle of chemical were recovered from him,” Sanjay Bhatia, a police officer, was quoted to have said.

“On finding these suspicious articles, the man was offloaded and was detained for further enquiry. Interrogation revealed that his original name was Gabriel Blessing Efe and that he had fraudulently obtained a passport and business visa.

“He further disclosed that he had come to India in 2012 for the first time and went back to Nigeria in 2013. In 2015 he again came to India on a business visa and stayed in different cities including Mumbai and Delhi.”

The police also named two other Nigerians implicated in the scam allegations.

“He [Efe] disclosed that one of his Nigerian friends, Tonny, who is in Kolkata, asked him to bring dollar size bundles of papers along with a bottle of chemicals,” Bhatia said.

“These items were provided to Efe by another Nigerian national Oscar at New Delhi Railway Station and he was asked to deliver it to Tonny in Kolkata.

“He also said they were looking to dupe one businessman on the pretext of providing him US dollars on cheap rates. They told the target that the dollars, which are in paper form, can be converted into original US dollars after a chemical wash.”

“The police recovered 14 bundles of currency size paper with each bundle containing 100 papers and one bottle of chemical.”

“A record from the immigration department has also been sought to ascertain the travel record of accused Gabriel and others. A team has been deployed to scrutinise the CCTV footage of ticketing agent and railway stations for more clues.”

A black dollar scam means a trick where con artists attempt to obtain money by duping their victim through persuading them that a bundle of banknote-sized paper are actually currency notes that have been dyed to avoid detection, and can be brought back to original dollars if treated with a particular chemical.