Five land in Delhi Police net for duping people by posing as cops

Tribune News Service

Samad Hoque

New Delhi, April 12

The Delhi Cyber Police on Friday busted a gang of fraudsters with the arrest of five persons, who used to extort money from people by impersonating as police officers. They used to make the victims believe their kin were in their custody.

The accused were identified as Vishwajeet Giri (25), Sudhir Pal (39), Ravi Kushwah (27), Kunji Lal Ahirvar (45) and Maya Singh (28), all residents of Bhopal.

DCP (Rohini) GS Sidhu said a cheating complaint was received on a cybercrime portal from Deepak Kumar.

The DCP said, “The complainant stated that he had received a call wherein the caller introduced himself as a police officer. The caller further told the complainant that his son, along with his three friends, was in his custody. The caller demanded Rs 70,000 in lieu of releasing his son.”

The complainant instantly transferred the amount to the account number provided by the caller in order to talk to his son, the police added.

“After receiving the money, the accused allegedly made another person — who sounded like his son — talk to the complainant. Later, the complainant came to know that his son was not in police custody. He realised he had been cheated and filed a complaint on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (NCRP),” the police said.

A case under Section 420 of the IPC was registered against the accused.

The police said the money trail was analysed and it was found that the accused were operating from Bhopal.

A police team reached Bhopal and arrested one of the accused, Vishwajeet.

“On being questioned, Vishwajeet disclosed that he used to arrange bank accounts in Bhopal to receive the cheated money. He told the police that he used to lure people, who were financially weak, by giving them some money in exchange of their documents to open bank accounts. He also disclosed that around Rs 2-3 lakh cheated money was transferred by him to different bank accounts on the directions of his accomplices, who are in Bihar,” the official said.

The police further conducted raids and arrested four other accused whose accounts and SIM cards were used in carrying out the crime.

The police have recovered 40 mobile phones, 41 SIM cards, 10 debit cards and 18 passbooks of different bank accounts from Vishwajeet.

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