Man loses lakhs in Nigerian trap

HYDERABAD: City police arrested a Nigerian man at Habsiguda on Tuesday for duping a local man of several lakhs of rupees, promising millions of US dollars as investment in business.George Tobechukwu Ike alias Philips Mecathy Morries confessed to the crime during interrogation and said that he had come to Hyderabad to collect money from one Ravi Kumar of Nalgonda on behalf of another man, Henry Ranathunga.A few days ago, Ranathunga saw a newspaper advertisement about sale of land. He contacted Ravi whose number was mentioned in the advertisement.After discussing about it, Henry told he would be sending $4.5 million through George. “George met Ravi at Mumbai airport and gave him a sealed briefcase and took `2 lakh as custom fee,” said ACP K Rahuram Reddy.Ravi then contacted Ranathunga and told him that the briefcase was locked with a code. Ranathunga sent George to open the briefcase which contained bundles of black papers and a broken bottle. “George told Ravi that the black papers would turn into US dollars when cleaned with the chemical.He said it would take one litre of the chemical to clean all the black papers,” Reddy said.Later, Ranathunga had telephoned Ravi and told him that one litre would cost `1 crore. Realizing that something was fishy about it, Ravi alerted the police.George was arrested on Tuesday when he arrived in Hyderabad.