Mumbai: A 24-year-old man from Gurugram, who took inspiration from a web series about cybercrime, was arrested by the Bangur Nagar police for allegedly duping a management student of Rs 24.6 lakh. Alok K, the accused, had posed as a student counsellor and warned the victim that he would be debarred and his career prospects would be ruined if he did not pay up.Upon arrest, Alok told the police that he was inspired by the antagonist on the OTT show ‘Pritam and Pedro’ and had planned to use social engineering and impersonation to deceive the victim. He also intended to erase his digital footprint.The 21-year-old victim had enrolled in a distance-learning programme for an MBA (finance) with a prestigious management institute in Jan 2026. He paid an annual fees of Rs 1.12 lakh for admission and was assigned a seat by the institute.Soon after, the accused (Alok) got in touch with him over phone and introduced himself as a student counsellor. The two met at a cafe in Juhu after which Alok helped the student complete his admission formalities. The student started to trust him.In June, while the student was appearing for an exam online, an alert popped up on his device screen that copying had been detected. The student immediately called up Alok and informed him that he had not copied. On the last day of the exam, the same alert popped up again and the application crashed. At this, Alok called up the student and inquired whether he had been copying again. At this, the student once again denied any wrongdoing.The student grew nervous when Alok warned him that he would be debarred and blacklisted and would never be able to get an admission in any other university in future. Alok offered to sort out the matter and started demanding money. He also promised to refund fhe money if he was unable to do the job.The student transferred him Rs 24.6 lakh in installments. But Alok refunded him only Rs 1.15 lakh. When the student passed the exam but Alok continued to demand money, the student realized he had been taken for a ride. He then confided in his parents and they lodged a complaint at the Bangur Nagar police station earlier this month.Police surveilled Alok’s phone records and the money trail before tracking his location to Gurugram. He was arrested on Sept 11. Police said Alok used to previously work at a call centre that had been contracted by the management institute to coordinate with all students regarding admissions and counselling. He got the victim’s phone number from the call centre’s database and targeted him. Police have seized two cellphones from him.
