Inter-state racket duping retd police personnel busted, 5 held

Prayagraj: Sleuths of cyber crime thana (Prayagraj range) on Tuesday claimed to have busted an inter- state racket involved in executing online frauds with retired police personnel and pensioners while imposing them as treasury officers and arrested five of its key members including kingpin of the racket from Jharkhand and West Bengal.
Police have also seized nine mobiles, 15 ATM cards of different banks and names, 11 pre-activated SIM cards, and a smart watch from their possession.
The arrested persons were identified as Abdul Matin alias Martin (kingpin of racket ) of Devghar (Jharkhand), Ankit Agrawal of North 24 Pargana (WB), Basarat Ali of Sirsa Jamuni (Jharkhand), SK Jishan Hussain and Vijay Prasad, both of Kolkata. All the five accused are aged between 25 and 35 years.
Inspector (cyber thana) Rajiv Kumar Tiwari told reporters that these criminals while posing themselves as ‘treasury officers’ used to call retired police personnel on the pretext of updating their pension and other records. The criminals first brief retired police personnel about their service and bank details and further ask to update their pension records. On the name of online verification, they seek secret records and OTPs through remote accessing app and execute online frauds.
Tiwari said that the criminals had cheated worth Rs 30 lakh from two retired police personnel including a retired head constable and a sub-inspector from the city, following which FIRs under appropriate sections were registered.
During investigations, police came to know that gang operators were operating from Jharkhand and West Bengal and cyber thana teams later collected all evidences and records to tighten the noose around gang.
Police, meanwhile, said that gang had executed a total of 179 online cash frauds across the state and its 12 members were arrested by different states police so far.