Mumbai police bust gang involved in digital arrests cyber fraud 12 held

    Mumbai, Aug 22 (PTI) The Mumbai police have busted a cyber fraud racket by arresting 12 persons, including a couple, who allegedly duped people in different parts of the country to the tune of Rs 60.82 crore, an official said on Friday.
    The financial transactions indicate that the gang has international links, the official said.
    Of the accused, who were apprehended recently, five had allegedly sold their bank accounts and SIM cards, which were used for cyber fraud, he said.
    The arrests were made following the Mumbai crime branch's raid at an office in the western suburb of Kandivali on August 12, in which officials seized SIM cards and bank passbooks, said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Detection) Raj Tilak Roshan.
    Police team led by Sr Police Inspector Dilip Tejankar had seized laptops, a printer, 25 mobile phones, 25 bank passbooks, 30 cheque books, 46 ATM cards, a swipe machine and 108 SIM cards of various telecom service providers, he said.
    Five accused, Vaibhav Patel, Sunilkumar Paswan, Amankumar Gautam, Khushboo Sundrajala and Nitesh Bandekar, were arrested during the raid on August 12, he said.
    Investigations revealed that the accused purchased bank accounts and SIM cards for cyber fraud, and these were activated from the same office, he said.
    The crime branch arrested seven more persons involved in the organised gang syndicate during the course of the probe, he said.
    The official said that the gang procured SIM cards and bank accounts for Rs 7,000-8,000 each and used them for digital arrests, online shopping and share trading frauds.
    The gang had purchased 943 bank accounts, of which 181 were used for fraud, he said.
    The accused had been using this modus operandi since last year, another officer said.
    While examining the complaints on the 1930 helpline, the police team found that 339 complaints were lodged against the SIM cards used by the accused.
    The accused are involved in at least 14 cyber fraud cases registered in Mumbai, and 12 in other parts of Maharashtra, the official said.
    The bank accounts and SIM cards were used to dupe people across the country to the tune of Rs 60.82 crore, which includes Rs 1.67 crore fraud in Mumbai and Rs 10.57 crore in the rest of Maharashtra, he said.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)