Extortion from behind bars: Bank manager, two aides held in Delhi

NEW DELHI: The Economic Offences Wing has arrested the manager of the Connaught Place branch of RBL Bank as well as two of his associates on charges of facilitating and laundering money for the high-profile conman, Sukesh Chandrasekhar.
The Economic Offences Wing identified the manager as Komal Poddar and his aides as Avinash Kumar and Jitender Narula. “The accused were involved in dubious transactions related to circulation of funds and arrangements for cash,” said R K Singh, additional commissioner of police, EOW.
On August 10, TOI was the first to report about the sensational extortion case and the arrest of Chandrasekhar, who was operating from behind bars. He had allegedly extorted Rs 200 crore from the family of a businessman for settling his legal cases.
The EOW on Thursday confirmed that Chandrasekhar was using the “number spoofing” technology to impersonate high-ranking government officials. While the cops are yet to crack open his iPhone, they suspect the fraudster was using an app called Crazy Call to spoof numbers, sources said.
Using the technology, Chandrasekhar would call his targets to strike deals and the victims would see the numbers decided by the conman on their phone screens, an official disclosed. In one of the last calls to a victim, the criminal impersonated the Union law secretary, a source said.
Apart from Chandrasekhar, the Special Cell had also arrested two associates, Deepak and Pradeep, and two jail officials in the case. Sandeep Goel, director-general, Tihar Jail, had transferred five officials of the ward in Rohini jail where the conman was lodged in and started an inquiry regarding the seizure of an iPhone from his cell.
In her complaint, the victim said that she had received a call in June last year in which the caller introduced himself as a secretary in the Union law ministry and proposed to help her in securing bail for her husband. This person demanded Rs 200 crore for getting the work done and conveyed the modalities regarding delivery of money.
Later, the victim realised she had been duped when her husband did not receive any legal relief. When she approached the law ministry, she was informed that no such communication was made from them. She contacted the cops and lodged a complaint.
The investigation was transferred to the EOW in order to establish the trail of funds and to identify the sources and ultimate beneficiaries of the money so transacted. “Further searches are being conducted in various places to get leads on the crime,” the Economic Offences Wing said in a statement on Thursday.