Accused in custody…
– Photo: Amar Ujala
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A gang of fraudsters in the name of getting visas for many countries including Dubai has been busted by the cyber station police of the central district. The police have arrested five accused in this regard from Bareilly and Delhi. Some African citizens were operating the gang, who are currently away from the police.
After preliminary investigation, the police have come to know from the details of four bank accounts that these people have cheated more than 1.25 crore from more than 200 people in a few days. Police is trying to reach the main accused by taking the arrested accused on remand.
The arrested accused have been identified as Deepak Kumar Prajapati (23), Aashiq Baig (37), Sajid (28), Asib Khan (38), residents of Bareilly and Sonu Kumar (26), residents of Delhi. Police recovered eight mobiles, four debit cards, three passbooks, three checkbooks, one Aadhaar card and eight Aadhaar card address change forms from the accused. The police is probing the matter by interrogating the accused.
Central District Deputy Commissioner of Police Sanjay Kumar Sen said that in October 2022, Dr. Vinay Singh of Maulana Azad Medical College had a complaint of cheating on the National Cyber Crime Recording Portal (NCRP).
The victim told that he needed a visa for Dubai. For this, he took the number of a reputed company with the help of Google. On talking to the number received from there, the accused, posing as representatives of a well-known company, asked the victim to deposit US $ 1750 (about 1.39 lakh) in the bank account. The victim got 50 thousand rupees deposited in the given account. After this he got an email. But later the accused switched off their mobiles. Apart from this, the mail id from which the email was received also bounced back. On realizing the fraud, the matter was reported to the police. After investigation, the police registered a case and started searching for the accused.
Citizens of African origin are running the gang
During interrogation, the accused told that the work of these people is to open the account and hand it over to the accused. They keep the cheated amount with themselves, in return they are given a good amount. Aashiq Baig finds such people, whose documents are taken and bank accounts are opened in their names. Most bank accounts are opened at Delhi addresses. Sajid used to make arrangements to change the address on the Aadhaar card. Sonu Kumar used to change the address on the basis of Aadhaar without any verification. Apart from this, Asib Khan used to make the already opened accounts available to African citizens. The Central District Police is probing the matter by interrogating the arrested accused.
Account in the name of Deepak, used to operate Aashiq
First of all, the account in which the amount was transferred was traced. Based on that, the police team reached Bareilly. The bank account was in the name of a person named Deepak Kumar Prajapati. He was arrested. During interrogation, Deepak told that he got the account opened at the behest of a young man named Ashiq. It is not he who operates the account, he gets money in return. The police team nabbed Ashiq Baig from Bareilly. After this, one by one the police caught Sajid Asib Khan and Sonu from Delhi. During interrogation, the accused accepted the matter of cheating.