Cooch Behar police have apprehended a couple accused of siphoning funds from customer service points (CSPs) of various banks, particularly those near international borders.
Subhajit Ballav and his wife, Ria Haldar Ballav, residents of Jafarnagar–Halalpur in Nadia district, were arrested by police from a hotel in Dharbhanga, Bihar, on Monday. They were brought back to Cooch Behar on Tuesday for further investigation.
Dyutiman Bhattacharya, Superintendent of Police, Cooch Behar, revealed that the duo has multiple cases pending against them across different states, with records also appearing on the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) portal.
In May and June of this year, two separate cases were filed at the Tufanganj and Sahebganj police stations. Victims reported receiving calls from individuals impersonating Border Security Force (BSF) personnel, requesting money transfers from CSPs, only for the callers to vanish afterward.
“They pretended to be BSF officials, convincing CSP operators to transfer money with the promise of reimbursement plus commission once they visited the designated border outposts,” explained the district police chief.
However, when the CSP representatives went to the border posts, they found no such BSF officials, revealing the couple’s scam.
Investigations showed Subhajit Ballav’s phone number flagged in the NCRB portal. In 2024, the couple was linked to 877 fraud cases nationwide, with 68 cases, including 19 in Cooch Behar, reported in 2025 alone.
The couple reportedly defrauded CSPs in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, and other states, siphoning over Rs48 lakh so far in 2025.
Authorities seized three mobile phones from the couple, who are currently in custody and will be interrogated further.
