Delhi police bust 2 gangs siphoning money by carrying out UPI transactions on stolen cellphones, 2 held

The gangs came under scrutiny after two cases of cellphone theft were lodged at Chandni Chowk and Gulabi Bagh in January.

On January 16, shopowner Jagdish Aggarwal from Chandni Chowk filed a complaint at Roop Nagar police station alleging that his phone was stolen. “Following this, Rs 5,32,349 were debited from his Punjab National Bank accounts and one IDFC First Bank credit card. A case was lodged on January 22,” said DCP (North) Raja Banthia.

During probe, another case registered at Gulabi Bagh police station on January 5 came to light, where the complainant alleged that his cellphone was stolen and a subsequent transaction of Rs 2.5 lakh made from his UPI ID.

According to the police, Aggarwal’s UPI ID was also used by an accused to recharge a cellphone number, which was found active in Munger. However, the police traced the accused, Vishal, to a spot near the Bara Hindu Rao Hospital in Delhi. Vishal, who hailed from Munger, was arrested.

During questioning, Vishal revealed that he belonged to a gang that was running a supply chain of cellphones from Munger to Nepal, fed by stolen phones from Delhi-NCR, police said.

“Vishal said he received cellphones from snatchers and pickpockets and attempted financial transactions with victims’ UPI IDs using common passwords such as ‘123456’ and the first six digits of their mobile numbers,” the DCP said. “As soon as he got access to the digital wallets of a victim, he would transfer money to the account he would create with the same number on Olymp app. Vishal would then move the money to his own Olymp app account and withdraw it.”

Vishal’s associate in Munger would send Ravi every fortnight to collect the stolen consignment, police said. “After Ravi was arrested, he revealed that he also worked under Mr X’s (associate) instructions to hand over the packages to a courier service in Chandni Chowk,” the DCP said.

After the police questioned the employees of the courier service, it came to light that Ramesh was to arrive to receive a parcel sent by Vishal and Ravi’s associate or handler in Munger. The packet, containing 31 stolen phones, was seized and Ramesh was arrested.

In connection to the Gulabi Bagh case, Banthia said, “It was found that the SIM card from the stolen cellphone of the complainant in the case had been installed in another device with a different IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) number. Probe revealed that multiple SIM cards from stolen phones had the same IMEI number, and attempts were made to withdraw money from all stolen phones.”

The phones and the IMEI number were traced to Gokulpuri and Jyoti Nagar in Delhi, leading to the arrest of Munni Lal (30) with stolen 112 cellphones, police said.

A resident of Sahebganj in Jharkhand, Munni Lal revealed that he, along with another person from Jyoti Nagar brought minor children from Jharkhand and made them steal the phones, police said. A raid was conducted at Jyoti Nagar but as Munni’s alleged associate managed to escape, they added.

“Munni Lal disclosed that he and ‘Mr Y’ (associate) had transported around 1,000 kg of cellphones from Delhi to Kaliachak in Malda in the last year from Delhi,” the DCP said.