The Vakola police have arrested five persons for allegedly defrauding people from various cities of India of more than Rs30 crore. The arrests were made on April 25, with the accused apprehended in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. The court has remanded all the accused in police custody until April 28.
A case was registered with Vakola police on January 14. The accused had defrauded a 26-year-old man of Rs3.41 lakh. It was revealed that the accused were history-sheeters and had defrauded several people of more than Rs30 crore.
The accused are – Rajkaran Singh Tanwar, 19, and Karansingh Sengar, 19, both from Rajasthan and Mohammad Ansari, 27; Miraj Akram, 20; and Fulej Ansari, 21, all three residents of Bhiwandi. All are known history-sheeters, with cases registered against them at the East Cyber Cell, West Cyber Cell, North Cyber Cell, Pimpri-Chinchwad Police Station, and Vilaspur Cyber Cell in Chhattisgarh.
Amar Patil, police inspector of the Cyber Cell at Vakola police station, stated, “This is a big gang. The accused used an app to convert the money. We are investigating where exactly the converted money was sent. This is a scam involving Rs30-40 crore across the country. Mohammad Ansari is the main accused. He received account details from contacts in Delhi and nearby areas. He also received SIM cards via post. The accused would insert the SIM cards into mobile phones and carry out fraud. Once they collected around Rs10 lakh, they would destroy the SIM card and use a new one to commit further crimes.”
The complainant, Arindam Mahapatra, a resident of Santacruz East and an employee at a private company, had been contacted by the scammers via WhatsApp. They offered him a work-from-home opportunity, lured him with the promise of high earnings through online tasks, added him to a Telegram group, and sent him several links through which they defrauded him of Rs3.41 lakh.
A police officer said that transit remand for the accused was obtained from the Jharkhand police. The accused are involved in several cheating cases across different states.
