The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Delhi Police has arrested two men for allegedly duping an octogenarian couple of Rs 5.24 crore on the pretext of high returns on investments.

The accused has been identified as Ankit Thakur (29) and Vinod Arya (28), who used to dupe the senior couple through their firm, Ecounsellor Webtech Private Limited, which engaged in the business of website development.

The duo took advantage of the blindness of the victim, who is a retired senior government servant with Ministry of Labour. He and his wife were duped to the tune of Rs 5.24 crore approximately on the pretext of providing high returns, police said.

According to R K Singh, the Additional Commissioner of Police, EOW, the victim couple wanted to settle in the US with their children who are already employed and settled there.

“They had decided to sell their immovable properties acquired during the lifetime for the same purpose. During this, they came in contact with the accused persons, who induced them through rosy presentation of very high returns for investing the money of these sale proceeds in their company. All the money was handed over to the accused duo who in the name of website production misappropriated their money,” said the additional CP.

“For winning confidence of the victims, they issued dated cheques from bogus accounts, which got bounced and they misappropriated the amount collected from the couple. On the basis of the meticulous investigation and development of information, both the accused persons were arrested. They have been taken on police custody remand and further investigation in the case is in progress,” said the additional CP.

Police said the accused men, who are college dropouts, are the directors and authorised signatories of the alleged company where the payments received from the victims were deposited.