Mumbai: 4 persons held for duping people on pretext of insurance money

The four accused were arrested from Noida

Four people, including a woman, have been arrested from Noida for cheating a senior citizen from Malabar Hill in South Mumbai.

The accused used to make random calls impersonating banking officials and tell the victims that their insurance policy has matured and the amount needs to be transferred immediately to their bank account.

"70-year-old Vinod Mahavir Prasad Bhageria had lodged an FIR at Malabar police station on November 3 after he was duped of over Rs 2 lakh by the gang. The case was registered under Sections 419, 420 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code and Sections 66 (c), 66 (d) of the Information Technology Act," said an officer privy to the investigation.

Also Read: Chief Justice Arvind Bobde's Mother Duped Of Rs 2.5 Crore By Family House Caretaker, Accused Held

The officer added, "Bhageria had received a call from an unknown number and the female caller told him that the money will be transferred to his account if he shares the bank account details and PIN number. Bhageria shared his bank account details with the female caller and soon after over Rs 2 lakh was transferred from his four bank accounts."

After the case was registered, the police officers studied the Call Data Records of the number through which the female had contacted Bhageria.

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Another officer from the investigating team retrieved the CCTV footage of ATM centres from where the money was withdrawn.

"We thoroughly probed the matter to check if the mobile number was linked with any bank under the Know Your Policy (KYC) norms. This gave us a lead and we nabbed two people who had come to the ATM centre to withdraw money," said the officer.

"After arresting Asif Yunus Khan (26) and Ashu Subhash Verma (29), two more accused - Aruna Singh alias Rakhi Tyagi (32) and Rashid Yusuf Khan (34) were held. Rashid Yusuf Khan helped the gang to access the bank accounts using fake documents," added the officer.

The officer further said that Rakhi Tyagi was running a call centre at Gaur City in Noida. "We have recovered over a dozen cell phones from her possession," the officer said.

A team of officers API Tukaram Dige, WAPI Rohini Dere, WPSI Varshali Chavan, constables Suresh Darwadkar, Snehal Kadam and Bajirao Sande -supervised by inspector Raja Bidkar - cracked the case.

All the accused have been brought to Mumbai on transit remand on Friday morning and will be produced before the court to seek their police custody for further interrogation.

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