The Cyber Crime Investigation Cell (CCIC) of the UT Police arrested a total of 12 people who were allegedly involved in a case of cyber fraud and cheated a retired Air Force officer. The accused were reportedly operating a fake call centre in Kolkata, West Bengal. Police said that their names had cropped-up during the questioning of five accused arrested last month, Danna Khan, Sonu Kumar, Anuj Kumar, Govinda Kumar and Anoop Kumar Tiwari, on the complaint of Ravinder Kumar, a retired Air Marshal, who was duped of Rs 3.36 lakh. During the investigation, it was found that some part of the cheated money was transferred to the bank account of one Neeraj Gupta, a resident of Kolkata, who was later arrested. Neeraj’s interrogation revealed that his brother Dheeraj was operating his account following which he was also arrested. Police stated that Dheeraj claimed that he had provided the bank accounts and SIM cards to the accused named Safiq Ansari alias Guddu who ran the fake call centre in Kharagpur. Acting on the information cops conducted a raid at a slum in Kharagpur and nabbed Safiq, Shehnvaz Ansari, Yusuf Ansari, Tanvir Alam and Irfan Ansari. “Dheeraj was involved in similar cyber frauds in the past. A team was sent to Kolkata and they arrested Neeraj. Neeraj revealed that his account was managed by his brother Dheeraj who was also arrested from Kolkata. Dheeraj disclosed that he provided accounts and SIM Cards to other accused namely Safiq Ansari alias Guddu and he running a fake call centre in Kharagpur. The team under the supervision of ASI Balwan Chand along with officials raided the slum area in Malanch, Kharagpur, where Shehnvaz Ansari, Safiq Ansari alias Guddu, Yusuf Ansari, Tanvir Alam and Irfan Ansari were arrested from an old house where they ran the call centre. All five were arrested and 15 mobile phones were recovered from them," SP (Cyber) Ketan Bansal said. Police said that Dheeraj is the mastermind of the gang. Had duped former Air Marshal of Rs 3.26L Ravinder Kumar, a retired Air Marshal and an ex-Advisor to the Government of Gujarat had purchased a flat, at Signature Towers in Sector 66 A, Mohali, and wanted to register a PSPCL electric meter for the house. He searched for a helpline number on Google and called on 7008677490 on the website of PSPCL. Police said that one Amit Kumar spoke to him, and asked him to transfer Rs 25. He was then asked to link his Google Pay UPI with CRED of SBI and an HDFC account. After this, an amount of Rs. 3,26,000 was allegedly debited at different intervals.
