New Delhi, Dec 29 (IANS): A man, who impersonated a Supreme Court lawyer and duped over 100 people across the country on the pretext of defreezing bank accounts blocked by various legal agencies, has been arrested, a Delhi Police official said on Friday.

The accused was identified as Prateek Dahiya, a resident of Sultanpur Dabas.

The official said that he had studied at NLIU, Bhopal, for one year and thereafter dropped the university on getting a supplementary in the annual examinations.

"He learned a few aspects of law there and used the same in cheating victims across India," the official added.

Deputy Commissioner of Police, South, Chandan Chowdhary said that a complaint was received at Cyber police station wherein the complainant, a resident of Hauz Khas stated that his bank account was blocked from NCRP Portal for some Binance transaction. To resolve this matter, the complainant searched for legal help on Google and came across a website and got a mobile number of the person who introduced himself as an advocate in higher courts of India and having good contacts in police department across India.

"The accused person cheated the complainant on the pretext of defreezing his bank account and other charges and provided a fake screenshot of a fake email sent by official government e-mail ID," said the DCP.

During the probe, it was revealed that several complaints across India were received in which complainants have been cheated by the same modus operandi.

"Details from the NCRP Portal and local police stations were received and it came to notice that the accused person is specifically targeting the victims whose account has been blocked from legal agencies across India," said the DCP.

The details of the fake website were obtained and it was revealed that the accused person has been using the names of different advocates on the website and has provided a single mobile number on which the victims can contact them.

"Efforts of the team bore fruits when through surveillance and technical analysis the location of the accused person was zeroed down at EWS Flats, Narela. Immediately, the team conducted a raid and the accused was successfully apprehended,” said the DCP.

Dahiya disclosed that his own bank account was frozen by a legal agency in a complaint of cyber fraud and he was able to defreeze the same through an advocate.

"There he learned the art of handling legal agencies and got this idea of cheating for which he made a fake website to lure clients. He further told that he started representing himself as an advocate of the higher courts and used to contact the victims as well as police authorities with the same designation,” said the DCP.

Dahiya used to take money in accounts opened using fake documents and then he used to send fake screenshots of emails sent from official government Email IDs and after some time, used to block the victims.

"He also disclosed that he has cheated more than 100 persons through this modus operandi and has spent all the money on online cricket betting," the DCP said.