Using police database on missing kids, man swindled over 900 parents, held

Then the calls stopped.

On Wednesday, Delhi Police said that at least 904 parents, including Markandey, who were desperate for information about their missing children, were duped by one man who exploited their helplessness. Markandey’s daughter was later found in Kanpur and was reunited with her parents.

Shyamsunder Chauhan, 28, a BCA graduate, was arrested from Uttar Pradesh’s Mau by the north district of Delhi Police this week for allegedly downloading information about missing persons, mostly children, from ZIPNET — a database meant for inter-state police coordination, especially to track missing persons, stolen vehicles and phones — and using it to dupe people.

The database includes photographs of missing persons, including children, their addresses and the phone number of the complainant. Created in 2004, it is used to strengthen coordination between police forces of Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, Uttrakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh.

On the modus operandi of Chauhan, DCP (North Delhi) Manoj Kumar Meena said, “The details of the missing persons are uploaded on the portal soon after the complaints are received. Soon, families would receive a call from the man who sometimes pretended to be an informer and sometimes a police officer. He would say he knew the location of the missing person, or that the person was found in a miserable condition…”

“He would then demand money, often using emotional manipulation and false promises that he would ensure the safety of the missing person… he would then share a QR code to transfer the money. Families, desperate for the well-being of their loved ones, succumbed to these schemes, sending amounts ranging from Rs 2,000 to Rs 40,000… In many cases, the accused claimed to have the complainant’s child in front of him, lacking basic necessities,” DCP Meena said.

A senior police officer said Chauhan did not have any social media presence and used a police officer’s photo as display picture on his WhatsApp profile.

It was only after the police arrested Chauhan that they realised the scale of the racket. They mapped his transaction history on PayTM and cross referenced the numbers with those of complainants whose details were available on ZIPNET. So far, the police claim to have found 904 such cases where the complainants paid him money. They are looking into more possible cases.

“Chauhan usually set himself a target of earning around Rs 15,000 in a day by making such calls,” DCP Meena said. A senior police officer said the money he extorted this way runs into several lakhs.

The North Delhi district police have traced Chauhan’s involvement in 41 missing persons’ complaints in their jurisdiction so far.

“To bolster his claims, he would claim that he will provide CCTV footage of the child being kidnapped or where he or she was last seen in exchange for a handsome amount of money,” said a senior police officer.