Varanasi: Law enforcement officials apprehended three additional individuals linked to a digital swindle targeting a retired pedagogue to the tune of Rs 3.55 crore. This incident occurred the previous month, as disclosed by the police.
Officers confiscated an array of incriminating items from the suspects: Rs 1.20 lakh in cash, 32 ATM cards, 20 SIM cards, 18 mobile devices, various PAN cards, and checkbooks. Additionally, a vehicle valued at Rs 20 lakh was seized. This brings the total number of apprehensions in this matter to fifteen.
The aggrieved party, Shampa Rakshit, a retired educator residing within the Sigra police jurisdiction, lodged a complaint of cyber deception on March 8. She reported receiving a call from an anonymous number, where the caller, pretending to be a representative from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), informed her that her phone would be disconnected within two hours and she would subsequently receive a call from the police.
Following this, another individual identifying himself as Vinay Chaubey from Vile Parle police station in Maharashtra contacted her. This fraudulent officer accused her of possessing a SIM card originating from Ghatkopar and insinuated her involvement in unlawful undertakings. He further threatened her with an impending arrest warrant.
She was instructed to remain indoors and refrain from discussing the matter with anyone. Subsequently, the caller extracted her banking information and advised her to transfer funds to a purported Reserve Bank of India account. He assured her the amount would be returned after an investigation.
Initially, Rakshit was coerced into transferring Rs 3 crore and later Rs 55 lakh to the specified account. It eventually became evident that she had fallen victim to a scam, leading her to file a police report.
DCP crime Chandrakant Meena stated that based on Rakshit’s complaint, an inquiry was launched by the cybercrime unit. Thus far, fifteen suspects have been detained in this case, three of whom were arrested today and are being remanded to custody, as Meena confirmed.
The trio of apprehended suspects have been identified as lead offender Himanshu Verma, also known as Tiger, Anant Jain, and Deepak Vaswani. All three hail from Kekri district in Rajasthan.
During the inquiry, the suspects disclosed that they perpetrated digital fraud by concealing their identities and passing along data regarding victims’ banking details, SIM cards, and other private information to fellow cyber swindlers.