Mobile tower ‘scam’: 3 held for duping over 1,000 people of Rs 1.5 cr

New Delhi, March 14

Three men were arrested for allegedly duping more than 1,000 people across India to the tune of over Rs 1.5 crore on the pretext of installing mobile phone towers of a reputed mobile company, police said.

The accused have been identified as Sanjay Kumar (28), Santosh Kumar (29) and Arjun Prasad (26).

Police said the trio cheated victims through a fake website. Sanjay used some of the amount cheated from the victims to start his own cloud telephony company -- Sanjay Enterprises -- they said.

At least 200 persons accepted that they were duped by the accused when the police approached them. 

Lokendra Kumar, one of the victim and a resident of Dabri in his complaint said he had seen a website www.reliancejiotower.net on the internet which talked about installing a mobile tower, Anto Alphonse, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Dwarka) said.

After contacting the mobile number given on the website and filling the form for tower installation, he received a mail containing the ‘approval letter’ for tower installation, police said.

The trio then started demanding Rs 14,413 in the name of security money from Kumar, who deposited the amount in the account number of Andhra Bank provided by them, the DCP said.

After depositing the amount, Kumar received message from his bank which said the money was transferred in the bank account of Arjun Prasad. Kumar bacame suspicious asked the trio to return his money which the accused refused.

During investigation, Cyber Cell of the Delhi Police obtained the registrant details, IP Logs and mode of payment of the alleged website and analysed them.

After analysing the account statement of bank account and the police found frequent deposit and withdrawal of money and that the bank account was opened giving a fake address. 

Based on a tip-off, the officials raided different areas in Manesar and Faridabad and the three accused were arrested, the DCP said. 

During interrogation, Sanjay who is the mastermind of this racket disclosed that he wanted to start his own company for which he required Rs 20 lakh.

He then created the fake website and took virtual numbers for it while also preparing the list of queries which can be asked by customers.

Thereafter, he hired a local artist and recorded the answers in his voice.

Sanjay, who holds an IT Diploma was working in a software company between 2011-14. He also worked in another reputed Indian technology service and consulting company from 2015 to 2017, he said.

Five mobile phones, nine sim cards and 12 ATM cards of different banks which were used to cheat people, account opening kits and cheque books were also recovered, police added. — PTI