Gang of cheats involved in online fraud busted : 4 accused arrested

The team of PS K.M. Pur, South District have arrested 4 cheats namely Mohd. Miraz Alam, Shatrughan Ojha @ Pintu, Mohd. Jamal and Anees, who were indulged in online frauds and cheat the innocent people of their hard earned money on the pretext of depositing cash in their fake accounts as service charge for release of lottery money and LIC bonus points.  11 fake Voter ID Cards, 13 PAN Cards, 13 ATM Cards, 17 Cheque Books, 15 Passbooks, 14 mobile phones and 6 SIM Cards have been recovered from their possession.

Brief facts :

        In view of spurt in online fraud complaints wherein money was transferred and withdrawal of cash was done fraudulently, a dedicated police team was assigned the task to identify the culprits involved in such criminal activities.  During enquiry of one such complaint, the local address of ICICI Bank, Govind Puri was identified.  The police team obtained the photograph of account holder and efforts were made through local sources to identify that person.  Due to concerted efforts, the police team succeeded in identifying the persons as Alam Sheikh (later identified as Mohd. Miraz Alam) r/o H. No. 752-B, Sukhdev Nagar, K.M. Pur.  The police team kept close watch on the inhabitants of that rented house which revealed that 2/3 more persons were residing in that house and their activities seemed to be suspicious.  Accordingly, a police team comprising SI Sanjiv Mandal, SI Karan Pal, HC Bharat Lal, Ct. Ashok, Ct. Harender, Ct. Gopal and Ct. Narender led by Inspr. Mukesh Kumar, SHO/K.M. Pur under the supervision of Sh. Jagdish Yadav, ACP/Defence Colony was formed.  A raid was conducted at H. No. 752-B, Sukhdev Nagar, K.M. Pur and 3 accused namely Mohd. Miraz Alam s/o Mohd. Yunus r/o Village Sakri Saraiya, Muzaffarpur, Bihar, Shatrughan Ojha @ Pintu s/o Ram Suresh Ojha r/o Village Kanth Chapra, District Chhapra, Bihar and Mohd. Jamal s/o Mohd. Taslim R/o Village Sakri Saraiya, Muzaffarpur, Bihar were arrested.  On their search, 11 fake Voter ID Cards, 13 PAN Cards, 13 ATM Cards, 17 Cheque Books, 15 Passbooks, 14 mobile phones and 6 SIM cards were recovered from their possession. A case vide FIR No. 447/16 U/s 419/420/467/468/471/474/120B IPC was registered at PS K.M. Pur and investigation taken up.

Interrogation :

        Accused Mohd. Miraz Alam disclosed that last year he came in contact of Raju @ Safi-Ur-Rehman, Sameer and Vicky in Mumbai.  He used to provide details of bank accounts to Raju (mastermind of their gang) who runs a Call Center in Mumbai.  Raju along with his associates used to call people on their mobile phones and induce them on the pretext of winning lacs of rupees in lucky draw or lottery or LIC bonus points.  They induce people to deposit certain amount in their bank account as service charge for release of money which they had won and they repeatedly ask the persons to deposit certain amount on one or the other pretext till that person stop depositing cash after sensing something suspicious.  When some of the people trapped in their net, deposit cash in their accounts, the money is withdrawn by them quickly and further handed over to one Sameer on the instruction of Raju @ Safi-Ur-Rehman and then they switch off their mobile phones or never respond to the call of victims.  The account holder gets 30% as one time commission for each account and 3% commission for each withdrawal from the account.  The accused persons confessed to have received Rs. 8 lacs as 3% commission within a span of 7/8 months on total transactions which mean that more than rupees 2.50 crores have been cheated from the gullible victims.  The total amount is expected to increase during further investigation after arrest of other gang members.

        At the instance of accused persons, their associate Anees was arrested from Jal Vihar, Lajpat Nagar, Delhi and another associate namely Surender is still absconding.  A police team has been sent to Mumbai along with accused persons to trace and arrest the remaining accused Raju @ Safi-Ur-Rehman, Vicky and Sameer. 

Modus operandi :

        Accused persons used to hire a house for months and manage to get the electricity / water bills in their names.  Accused Shatrughan Ojha with the help of one Anees r/o Sangam Vihar managed to get fake PAN Card.  Then, accused Shatrughan Ojha would provide this fake PAN Card to Anees, who is MTS staff on contract basis in Ration Office, Lajpat Nagar who managed to issue them Voter I-Card on the basis of electricity / water bills.  On the basis of PAN Card, Voter I-Card and electricity bill, they managed to open accounts in different banks such as Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, State Bank of India and get cheque books, ATM/Debit Cards from the banks.  Thereafter, accused persons with the help of one Chartered Accountant paid service tax and filled form ST-II, opened a company in the name of Sunrise Enterprises, prepared stamp of company and opened current account in the name of company for withdrawal of frequent and huge amount simultaneously as well as to avoid any suspicion on their activities.

Profile of accused persons :

1. Mohd. Miraz Alam, age 30 years s/o Mohd. Yunus r/o Village Sakri Saraiya, Muzaffarpur, Bihar is a school dropout.  He is married and has one child.  He is an electrician by profession.

2. Shatrughan Ojha @ Pintu, age 30 years s/o Ram Suresh Ojha r/o Village Kanth Chapra, District Chhapra, Bihar has studied upto 10^th class.  He is married and has one child.  Earlier, he has worked as security guard. 

3. Mohd. Jamal, age 34 years s/o Mohd. Taslim R/o Village Sakri Saraiya, Muzaffarpur, Bihar is a school dropout.  He is married and has 2 children.  He is embroidery worker.

4. Anees, age 25 years r/o Sangam Vihar, Delhi has studied upto 12^th class.  He is married.  He was working at Food & Supply office, Jal Vihar, Lajpat Nagar on contract basis.

Recoveries :

1. 11 Voter ID Cards,
2. 13 Pan Cards,
3. 13 ATM Cards,
4. 17 Cheque Books
5. 15 Passbooks
6. 14 mobile phones
7. 6 SIM cards.