The Vakola police have arrested five individuals involved in a large-scale fraud operation that has defrauded people across India of over Rs 30 crore. The arrests were made on April 25, with the accused apprehended in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. The court has remanded all the accused in police custody until April 28.
The case was first registered with Vakola police on January 14 after a 26-year-old man was defrauded of Rs 3.41 lakh. Investigations revealed that the accused are history-sheeters with several cases against them across various cyber cells and police stations, including East Cyber Cell, West Cyber Cell, and Pimpri-Chinchwad Police Station.
The arrested individuals include:
Rajkaran Singh Tanwar (19)
Karansingh Sengar (19) – both from Rajasthan
Mohammad Ansari (27)
Miraj Akram (20)
Fulej Ansari (21) – all residents of Bhiwandi
According to Amar Patil, police inspector of the Cyber Cell at Vakola police station, the accused used an app to convert the defrauded money. “Once they collected around Rs 10 lakh, they would destroy the SIM cards and use new ones to continue the scam,” Patil said. The police are still investigating where the converted money was sent.
Mohammad Ansari is identified as the main accused. He reportedly received account details from contacts in Delhi and nearby areas, and also received SIM cards through the post. The scammers used these SIM cards to carry out their fraudulent activities.
The complainant, Arindam Mahapatra, a Santacruz East resident and private company employee, had been lured by the fraudsters through WhatsApp. They promised him high earnings through a work-from-home opportunity. He was then added to a Telegram group where they sent him links, which ultimately led to the defrauding of Rs 3.41 lakh.
The accused are involved in several similar cheating cases across different states, and transit remand has been obtained from the Jharkhand police to further investigate their criminal activities.
