BANGALORE, India: The Bangalore International Airport police have arrested a Ghana national for cheating many people through a lottery fraud.

The accused has been identified as Akachi Ndubuisi (26), who was presently residing in New Delhi. The police acted on the complaint of Tejappa B of Hassan. The accused had sent an SMS to Tejappa’s mobile phone saying ‘Congrats your mobile number has won $1 million USD in 2009 in the Nigerian lottery. To claim the prize money, e-mail your full name and other details to ‘claim30@live.

co.in’. Tejappa believed it and sent the e-mail.

The accused then called him up and asked him to credit Rs 40,000 as ‘diplomatic charges’ to an SBI account.

Tejappa did as he was told, police said.

The accused then asked Tejappa to credit Rs 1.3 lakh more to his account for ‘customs clearance’. Tejappa obliged. The accused sent him a copy of a duplicate receipt of the customs department for the amount, through e-mail. Again, the accused asked Tejappa to deposit Rs 5 lakh as ‘money conversion fees’, which Tejappa did.

Ndubuisi asked Tejappa to pay another Rs 25 lakh as income tax. But the latter agreed to pay only Rs 10 lakh and asked the accused to come to Bangalore to collect the money. Meanwhile, Tejappa alerted the police about Ndubuisi and the police arrested him on arrival at the airport.

Ndubuisi’s interrogation by the police revealed that there were two associates of his involved in the crime - Richord Walter and Priya Rao. The police are investigating the case.