Bengaluru: The Talaghattapura police have arrested a Nigerian and his partner for duping a city-based engineer after luring her into a fake export chain marketing scam involving herbal medicines.The police have identified the accused as Andrew, 41, alias Eric Peter, who is originally from Nigeria but is now out of New Delhi, and his partner Babli Parveen Hashmi, 52, from Mumbai.

The police said the accused have duped more than a hundred people of around Rs. 8 crore in the last four years.

Posing as clients, the police approached the accused and offered them a huge sum of money. As neither of the accused was in Bengaluru, the police, in an elaborate operation, convinced them to fly into the city to collect cash for their ‘herbal products’. They were arrested the moment they came to collect the money. 

S.D. Sharanappa, Deputy Commissioner of Police (South), said Peter lived in New Delhi on a business visa. During his time in the country, he befriended Babli and the duo allegedly began an online fraud racket by luring people into their chain marketing business. They convinced unsuspecting clients to purchase ‘herbal medicines’ in bulk and promised them that they would connect them to buyers in the international market.

They allegedly lured a Bengaluru engineer, Vijaya, and offered her herbal remedies for snake bites and other chronic diseases. In her complaint to the police, the techie said that the couple promised to her sell the products for a huge profit. She transferred Rs. 50 lakh to their account online. She realised that she had been duped when they disappeared soon after.

Based on her complaint, the police approached the accused online and offered to buy herbal medicines from them for Rs. 80 lakh. The police have recovered Rs. 21 lakh from one of the bank accounts of the duo and returned it to Vijaya.