Ludhiana-based industrialist duped of Rs7 lakh by cyber criminals

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, June 20

Four West Bengal and one Gujarat-based cyber criminals duped a city- based industrialist of Rs7 lakh allegedly by hacking his mobile phone.

The accused have been identified as Samar Bahadur Patel of Surat, Gujarat, Raju Atha of Bankura (West Bengal), Samrat Ali and Ishan Chowdhury, both of Murshidabad (West Bengal), and Sonali Mandal of Maldah (West Bengal).

Complainant Gurbir Singh of DPS Enclave, Jhammat village, told the police that he owned Hemkunt Paper Mill in Ludhiana and his bank account was in HDFC Bank branch, BRS Nagar.

The complainant stated that the bank allowed him daily transaction limit upto Rs10 lakh. Recently, he felt the need to increase his daily transaction limit. He searched Google about the process to increase the transaction limit and got one mobile number purportedly of HDFC Bank.

“When I called on the mobile number, the person, who answered the call claimed himself to be senior bank official. On the pretext of providing help to me, he hacked my mobile number and later withdrew Rs7 lakh from my bank account through different transactions,” the complainant added.

Money was transferred in various bank accounts, which belonged to five persons.

After the cyber cell received complaint, a probe was initiated following which a case of fraud and criminal conspiracy was registered against five persons.

The investigation officer, ASI Amritpal Singh, said the police would send a team to nab the accused booked for the crime.

In a similar case, the police division No. 6 booked Bhubneshwar Maji and Yogesh Kumar of Delhi on the charge of committing a cyber fraud of Rs8,500 with a city-based man. Complainant Kewal Singh Panesar of Chet Singh Nagar told the police that he got a call from some unknown persons, who asked him to follow the required steps on Paytm app to complete the KYC process. When he followed the steps and clicked on links sent by them, Rs8500 got deducted from his bank account. Later, when the police started a probe two persons were found involved in the crime.

Victim’s mobile phone hacked

• Complainant Gurbir Singh said he owned Hemkunt Paper Mill in Ludhiana and his bank account was in HDFC Bank branch, BRS Nagar. He wanted to increase his transaction limit and found a mobile number purportedly of HDFC Bank on Google.
• “When I called on the mobile number, the person, who answered the call, claimed himself to be senior bank official. On the pretext of providing help to me, he hacked my mobile number and later withdrew Rs7 lakh from my bank account,” Gurbir Singh added.

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