By -Raju Vernekar
Mumbai, January 24:
The Cyber Police Division of Mumbai Police recently arrested three people from Uttar Pradesh, on charges of siphoning over Rs 5.5 crore from the people assuring them high returns on maturity of their insurance policies, bank loans and jobs across the country.
The trio duped people in Mumbai, Delhi, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, .
Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) cyber crime, Balsing Rajput told media on Monday.
The accused were identified as Anujkumar Baleshwar Saha (21), residing at Gautam Buddha Nagar, Uttar Pradesh. He was running a Mobile shop for names sake and was collecting insurance policy documents from the holders desperate to obtain early refund of the sum insured. He used to get money credited in his bank account and then withdraw it from different ATMs. Totally Rs 71 lakh were found credited in his bank account in Hyderabad, towards maturity of insurance policies. He was arrested on January 07.
Sandip Kumar Laltaprasad (28), residing at Gaziabad, used to collect rent receipts, Adhar cards etc from people and based on these documents used to obtain SIM cards. Based on these SIM cards and fake documents, he used to open bank accounts online. Then he used to pass on these bank account numbers and ATM cards to other accused Ravi Singh Saroj Singh and Sumit Singh by collecting Rs 15000 per account. He had opened 27 fake bank accounts in the last one year. He was arrested on January 14.
Ravi Singh Saroj Singh residing at Greater NOIDA, was working at a call centre at Salarpur. He used to collect money from people by promising them jobs in different companies. He was arrested on January 17.
The offence (FIR No, 20/2022) under sections 419,420,465, 467,468, 471, 120(B), 506, 34 of Indian Penal Code and sections 66-D of Information Technology Act 2000 (as amended in 2008) was registered and the accused were remanded to police custody. They have been booked for cheating, criminal conspiracy, forgery, impersonation and criminal intimidation.
The police confiscated 18 ATM cards, 12 mobile phones, five laptops and Rs 44,000 in cash among other valuables. Besides, an amount of Rs. 20.50 lakh lying in the different bank accounts of the accused was freezed by the police. The accused were found with the policies issued by different insurance companies.
The scam was unearthed when a dry fruit whole sale merchant from Ghatkopar in North East Mumbai was duped of Rs 4,39, 57,532 by assuring him a refund of Rs. 7,70,93,028 on his insurance policy. The accused contacted him for very long time-November 08, 2021 to August 04,2022. They communicated to him through e mail, phone calls etc.
To gain his confidence the accused sent him forged RBI receipts and fake letters of the National Payment Corporation of India and Union Ministry of Finance. During the investigation, the police revealed that the accused had opened bank accounts in fictitious names in 27 states. The mobile phones used by the accused matched with the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) originating from three cases in Mumbai and 11 offences across the country.
DCP Balsing Rajput, said, “The mastermind is a repeat offender. We are trying to find out from where they get access to such a huge amount of data. This is a much bigger racket and more people are involved. The accused mostly targeted senior citizens.”
The gang was busted by officiating Police Inspector Sharmila Sahasrbuddhe, Police Inspector Jagannath More and staff, under the supervision of Police Commissioner Vivek Phansalkar, Spl CP Deven Bharati, Joint CP Lakhami Gautam, Addl CP Dnyneshwar Chavan, DCP Balsing Rajput and ACP Rajesh Nagwade.
