Two arrested for duping Mandi resident of Rs24 lakh

Tribune News Service

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Shimla, February 27

The Cyber Crime branch of the Himachal Police have arrested two persons who duped a Mandi resident, Bhawan Kumar, of about Rs 24 lakh, by getting information about his bank account-linked mobile number and debit card details of Punjab National Bank, posing as bank employees.

Vishal Kumar Pal was nabbed from Purulia in West Bengal on February 22 and his accomplice Praduman, alias Karan Pandit, was arrested from Begusarai in Bihar on February 24. They were produced in the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate here on Wednesday and remanded to five days of police custody.

The accused used fake KYC to port the mobile on Vodafone and transferred Rs 24 lakh from two PNB accounts of the complainant to e-valet, Paytm through mobile and net-banking. The fraudster further transferred the amount to 20-25 Fino Bank accounts through e-valet.

A team of cyber crime branch headed by DSP Narvir Rathore started investigating the Fino Bank accounts in West Bengal and found that the accounts were opened in fake names and the ported numbers were released by Vodaphone retailer Vishal Kumar Pal.

The cyber team gathered information that Vishal had given wrong address of his shop and was running a shop in the name of Vodaphone mini store at Gaushala Road and raided the place.

The cyber crime team recovered five mobile phones and Fino Bank ATMs, Vodaphone Impression Seal and copies of Aadhaar cards of 200 persons. Investigations revealed that Vishal was a retailer of Vodaphone and also an agent of Fino Bank and the ATM of all the accounts by him were given to Praduman.

When Praduman was arrested, six mobile phones, 34 SIM cards, five Fino Bank ATM, two Axis bank credit cards and Rs 6,500 were recovered from him.