New Delhi: Gang that duped close to 1,000 people promising oxygen cylinders busted, 9 held

Police said he paid up but did not get a cylinder, and his wife died during treatment. A case was registered, and police started tracing the phone number and money trail.

“Initially, we identified three accused along with details of the bank accounts and phone numbers. They were traced to Bihar and our team arrested them there. We found they are involved in one more case. During investigation and questioning, we found the gang has several modules and arrested six more people from West Bengal and Bihar,” said police.

DCP (Cyber) KPS Malhotra explained that the gang is divided into 6 parts – the primary one is the mastermind who oversees the functioning of all modules and handles social media. The other five parts are ‘tele callers’ who pose as vendors and cheat people; the ‘account handlers’ who operate the bank accounts and circulate the cheated money; the account ‘providers’ who procure bank accounts from rural areas and give the details to the handlers; and the SIM card providers who fraudulently buy multiple SIMs on fake IDs.

The last part comprises account holders, mostly people from a poor financial background who don’t know much about the scam. They give their details and accounts to earn some money or get a commission.

The arrested accused include two women. Nine phones, 11 SIM cards, and 7 ATM cards have been seized.

Police said the mastermind, Pawan Kumar (26), is pursuing his PhD in Bihar. Another accused identified as Kamalkant has an MCA degree. The two women were the account holders.

Police said all nine have been booked under IPC sections 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (cheating) and 120B (criminal conspiracy).