Chandigarh, Jul 7 (PTI) Two Nigerian nationals have been arrested from Delhi for allegedly duping government officials and others of money by posing as cabinet ministers and senior bureaucrats, a police officer said on Thursday.

They used to allegedly introduce themselves as VVIPs on WhatsApp and send messages to people, mostly government officials, asking for financial favours in the form of gift cards and digital wallet payments among others, Punjab Director General of Police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav said.

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To make their WhatsApp profiles look genuine, they also used to keep images of those VVIPs as their display pictures, he added.

Anioke Hyginus Okwudili alias Poka and Franklin alias William, both residents of Lagos in Nigeria and currently residing in Delhi, have allegedly duped several people by impersonating as Punjab cabinet ministers, DGP, chief secretary, and other IAS and IPS officers, Yadav said in a statement here.

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Police recovered expensive watches, mobile phones, laptops, gadgets, a debit card and passports from their possession, he said.

Inspector General of Police (Cyber Crime) R K Jaiswal said teams from the Punjab Police and the Delhi Police managed to nab Anioke red-handed while he was withdrawing money from an ATM kiosk located near Vikas Puri in New Delhi.

"The WhatsApp accounts were hacked from Nigeria and he (Anioke) used to withdraw the money from the ATM cards of bank accounts opened using fake documents in different parts of the country. The money used to be then handed over the kingpin Franklin, who further used to electronically transfer the money to Nigeria," Jaiswal said.

Franklin was also arrested in a joint operation by teams from the two states after a chase, he added.

Another police official said the arrest of the kingpin with the recovery of almost 108 GB data opened a realm of information revealing the magnanimity of the financial transactions amounting to several lakhs of rupees every day.

"The information containing screenshots of the impersonated IDs and transactions has been sent for forensic analysis for further probe into drug linkage and hawala transactions," the official said.

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