LUCKNOW: Lured by chance of earning a quick buck, a couple were duped to fatal consequences. An army man posted in Jhansi responded to a TV spot asking viewers to identify a celebrity from the morphed image flashed on screen and call on the number advertised. Next day, he was congratulated on phone for giving the right answer and winning the amount of Rs 12 lakh, with a rider that he would need to deposit a certain amount as “income tax deductions and processing charges” to a certain bank account number.

S K Rai (40), Army personnel posted at Jhansi Cantonment and his wife Mamta deposited all their savings in the said bank account and waited for a day for the prize money to be transferred into his account as promised. But a day passed and no such happened and meanwhile Rai found that the money he had deposited into the said account had been withdrawn and it had been closed. The bank account holder was untraceable and the mobile number on which the communication took place too stopped working.

On realising that he had been duped, Rai went to the local police but they were unwilling to lodge FIR, so he complained to the Jhansi district magistrate Anurag Yadav. His wife could not take the shock and slipped into coma on Friday and died on Saturday.

Though the army man is tightlipped on police role in the entire incident, his relatives claimed that complaint has been lodged with DM Jhansi in connection with the incident. Despite best possible efforts, the DM could not be contacted for comment.

