GANG OF CHEATS BUSTED FOR COMMITTING CHEATING OF MORE THAN RS. 2 CRORES FROM SEVERAL SENIOR CITIZENS POSING AS RBI, BANK AND INCOME TAX OFFICIALS

CHEATS WERE RUNNING FAKE TOUR OPERATOR FIRM REGISTRED IN THE NAME OF ‘POWER EFFECT SERVICE’ AT LAXMI NAGAR FOR COMMITTING CHEATING.

• SENIOR CITIZENS FROM ALL OVER INDIA WERE TARGED AND CHEATED PROMISING HUGE BONUS ON THEIR EXISTING INSURANCE POLICY. 

• THE GULLIBLE ELDERLY PERSONS WERE INDUCED OVER TELEPHONE TO DEPOSIT LARGE AMOUNT IN DIFFERENT BANK ACCOUNTS ON THE PRETEXT OF FILE CHARGE, INCOME TAX AND OTHER DUTIES FOR AVAILING BONUS ON INSURANCE POLICY. 

• THE ACCUSED CHEATED A SENIOR CITIZEN AGED 82 YEARS (Retd. CPWD ENGINEER) RESIDENT OF PITAMPURA TO THE TUNE OF RS.80.5 LACS BY ENTICING HIM THROUGH A LETTER HUGE BONUS OF 1.30 CRORE ON HIS EXISTING INSURANCE POLICY.

• MOBILE PHONES, SIM CARDS AND OTHER INCRIMINATING MATERIAL USED FOR CHEATING SEIZED.

• 06 CHEATS INCLUDIGN THE MASTERMIND VISHAL TYAGI AND SONU GIRI ARRESTED

The team of Special Staff North West District has arrested 06 persons Devender Kumar@Vishal Tyagi@Vishu, Sonu Giri, Rohit Kumar Mishra@Siddharth, Manish Thakur, Vishal Verma and Pankaj Nayak and has worked out a case of cheating amounting to Rs.80.5 Lakh registered at PS Maurya Enclave.

INCIDENT: On 27.05.2016, Shri M.L. Aggarwal r/o Pitampura, Delhi, a retired CPWD/Engineer having served in India, Nepal and Libya had complained that he was cheated by some unknown persons who had been pestering him by making telephone calls since 01.01.2015 and had promised to get the payment of his old unpaid insurance claim released.  The complainant added that he has been cheated for a sum of Rs.80,50,532/- by those persons.  Keeping in view the huge amount of money involved in the cheating and especially the fact that a senior citizen was cheated of all his retirement benefits and also that it seemed to be a collective effort of a gang of cheats, the complaint was marked to Special Staff, North-West District for further enquiry.

TEAM AND OPERATION : The statement of the complainant was recorded and was thoroughly examined to establish the identity and modus operandi of the gang involved.  A dedicated police team comprising of SI Ram Manohar, HC Suresh, HC Ashok, Cts. Sanjay, Dheeraj, Sushil, Mukesh Tyagi, Somveer and Rahul was constituted under the guidance of Inspr. Arun Kumar, I/C Special Staff/NWD and supervision of Sh. Ombir Singh, ACP/Ops./NWD.  It revealed that some persons posing as Insurance agents from Mumbai and Chennai had contacted the complainant and told him about an insurance policy by the Government of India in his name while he had served in Libya which is still earning huge bonus.  The caller promised to get those bonuses transferred in his account.  The complaint was duped and made to transfer money Rs.80,50,532/- in the bank accounts of various firms like ‘Power Effect Service’, ‘Central Union Fund’, ‘Fund Value Solution’ and other firms.

During investigation, it revealed that Rs.38.5 Lakh was deposited by the complainant in the Axis Bank and Yes Bank accounts of ‘Power Effect Service’ at Laxmi Nagar and Shakarpur.  The accounts were opened in the name of one Ankur r/o Burari.  On verification, Ankur was found residing at his house in Burari.  During interrogation he revealed that he had worked in the office of ‘Power Effect Service’ at Laxmi Nagar as a receptionist.  He further revealed that the persons namely Siddharth, Manish and Pankaj who were running the office had told him that they were offering Tour Operator Service to customers and needed his ID proof and photograph for opening bank account of firm as he had his own house in Delhi. Oblivious of the real motive of the said persons he gave them the required documents and therefore, the bank account of the said firm was opened by Siddharth and Manish in Yes Bank, Shakarpur in Sept 2015 and in Axis Bank, Shakarpur in 2016 using the ID of Ankur.  It also revealed that a total Rs.1,26,41,742/- was deposited in Yes Bank between Oct. 2015 to June, 2016 and Rs.27,29,326/- were deposited in Axis Bank between March-June, 16.  The accused persons closed the office in first week of June, this year.  Ankur further stated that Siddharth, Manish and Pankaj did not give him their personal number but he had saved the photograph of Siddharth and Pankaj on his mobile.  

The police team started working on the information extracted from Ankur and started developing it further.  Information channels were activated to develop intelligence on the gangs operating on similar modus operandi.  The mobile call details  were also analysed.  The hard work of police team paid dividends and the accused Pankaj was traced as residing at Khoda Colony, Ghaziabad, UP.  On 22.09.2016, the police team also noticed Ajay Nayak going towards the bus stand at Khoda Colony in the morning hours.  He was closely followed and was intercepted when he and his other associates identified as Ajay Nayak, Rohit Mishra@Siddharth, Manish Thakur and Vishal Verma joined him. They were served notice and brought of Special Staff, NWD at Pitmapura. They were confronted with Ankur in whose name they had opened the bank accounts. During their interrogation it revealed that they had been running the fake Tour Operator Firm Power Effect Service and had duped the complainant in a pre-planned manner.  They were arrested in case FIR No.467/16, u/s 419/420/468/471/34/120 B IPC registered at P.S Maurya Enclave.  

INTERROGATION AND MODUS OPERANDI  

During interrogation, the accused persons revealed that they had worked in the firms ‘Davis Club’ and ‘Dreamland Developers’ which were closed in the year 2015 due to complaints of cheating. While working in he said firm they learnt the modus operandi of cheating on the pretext of bonus of insurance policies. They planned to form their own firm to earn quick money in this manner and thus the accused Sidharth and Pankaj Nayak took an office on rent at Laxmi Nagar.  Thereafter, Pankaj Nayak lured Ankur Tomar r/o Burari and offered him job and took his documents for opening bank account in the name of ‘Power Effect Service’ which was registered and shown to be dealing in the business of Tour Operator.  Manish and Vishal roped in their friends Devender Kumar@Vishal Tyagi and Sonu Giri for making calls to different persons for duping them.

On the basis of information provided by the arrested accused persons, the accused Devender Kumar@Vishal Tyagi was arrested from Sector-2, NOIDA.  Mobile phones used for communicating and duping the complainant was recovered from him. He disclosed that he used the names like Jha, Sonkar Apte etc. for duping the complainant in which his friend Sonu Giri helped him.  On the basis of information disclosed by the accused Devender Kumar@Vishal Tyagi his accomplice Sonu Giri was also arrested from Modi Nagar. Mobile phone used by him for communicating with the complainant have been recovered besides the laptop used for making forged documents and pen- drive in which some documents have been stored.

The arrested accused disclosed that Devender Kumar@Vishal Tyagi and Sonu Giri used to take 70% share in the money and on their advice the bank account of Power Effect Service was closed as they suspected that they can be caught if they operated the bank accounts for a long period as the complainant is a resident of Delhi. They were planning to open new office and new bank accounts for duping people.  The accused Devender Kumar@Vishal Tyagi also worked for the firms ‘Fund Value Solution’ and ‘Central Union Fund’ and made the complainant deposit around Rs.16 Lacs in their bank accounts. All the bank accounts of the said firms have been freezed by sending letters to the concerned banks and efforts are being made to identify other persons associated with the said firms though which the complainant was cheated.

Accused persons procured all concerned data of Insurance Policy of victims including their contact numbers during their job in call centers related to Insurance Company. During telecalling, they used to collect the requisite information. Thereafter, they used to call customers and used to induce them to deposit money in the form of refundable income tax in bank accounts. Once the victim deposits the money on their direction, in second phase, they further induced the victim stating that his dividend on Insurance Policy had been increased.  Hence customer had to deposit the increased income tax. First, they introduced themselves as officials of insurance company and later they started introducing themselves as officers of RBI to pressurize victims to deposit the next installment.

   The accused impersonated themselves as officials and used the name and designation of reputed departments to cheat innocent people. The tool meant for public facility was misused by these clever accused so that victim can easily trust them.