The Office of the Attorney General (OAG) has charged a civil servant and an Indian businessman for allegedly swindling thirteen individuals of Nu. 849,000 in a WhatsApp lottery scam.
The OAG submitted the case to the Paro court on Tuesday.
According to the OAG, the two accused collected Nu.849,000 from the thirteen individuals in March and April last year on the pretext of delivering WhatsApp lottery prizes to them.
The 41-year-old civil servant allegedly collected Nu.450,000 from eight victims using his bank account numbers and that of his wife and younger sister.
The 22-year-old Indian businessman from Jaigaon allegedly collected Nu. 399,000 using the bank accounts of three other Bhutanese.
According to the OAG, the two accused deposited the money in Indian accounts. They also told OAG that all the money collected from the victims was sent to the prime suspect in India. However, police froze Nu 215,000 from one of the accused during the investigation.
As per the investigation report, the two accused had participated in the WhatsApp Scam with the prime suspect and collected the amounts. The duo had called the victims through WhatsApp mobile phone pretending to be from WhatsApp company and persuaded the victims to send the money to claim their WhatsApp Lottery prize of Rs. 2.5 million along with a BMW car.
The victims were asked to deposit Nu. 10,000 as Pin Code Charge and another Nu. 25,000 as Indian Prime Minister’s signatory fees to get their prizes. The victims were asked to contact a “staff” of State Bank of India (SBI) through mobile phone to claim their prizes. It was later found that the “staff” was not an employee of SBI but the prime suspect in this case. The prime suspect is still at large.
The case was reported to Paro police by one of the victims Ngajay from Betekha,Paro in April 2018.
