UT Police’s cyber crime cell busted a fake call centre operating out of Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh, from where over 100 people, including three from Chandigarh, were duped on the pretext of reviving their expired insurance policies. While six persons accused of committing the fraud have been arrested, one of the accused is on the run.
Police have recovered 25 mobile phones, two laptops, 70 checkbooks of different banks, 40 registers and approximately 100 passbooks from their possession.
As per the police, they had received a complaint from Chander Mohan Munjal, an advocate and a resident of Sector 21, Chandigarh, that he had received a phone call from a person claiming to be an employee of HDFC Bank. Munjal stated that the caller told him that his life insurance policy had lapsed and he had to renew it. He believed the caller as his policy had indeed lapsed and he deposited ₹3,58,000 in three different accounts of three different banks.
Later, he got an email from the zonal manager of HDFC Life Insurance Company Ltd and Madhuri Kashyap, a woman who had earlier spoken to the complainant over the phone, posing as an HDFC official. The complainant then received phone calls from several different mobile numbers after which he realised, he had been duped.
During probe, police traced the mobile number to Ghaziabad and found them in a rented accommodation, which they were using to run the fake call centre. The accused have been identified as Munish Kumar, 30, of Krishana Nagar, Ghaziabad, Mukesh Kumar, 23, of Sanjay Nagar, Ghaziabad, Ankur Verma, 28, of Shastri Nagar Ghaziabad, Gaurav Verma, 28, of Shastri Nagar, Ghaziabad, Raju Ranjan Yadav, 21, of Haldipokhar, Jharkhand, and Suraj Murmu, 23, of Sidadih Manpur village in Jharkhand. Police are now on a lookout for Madhuri Kashyap and owner of the accommodation.
{{/usCountry}}During probe, police traced the mobile number to Ghaziabad and found them in a rented accommodation, which they were using to run the fake call centre. The accused have been identified as Munish Kumar, 30, of Krishana Nagar, Ghaziabad, Mukesh Kumar, 23, of Sanjay Nagar, Ghaziabad, Ankur Verma, 28, of Shastri Nagar Ghaziabad, Gaurav Verma, 28, of Shastri Nagar, Ghaziabad, Raju Ranjan Yadav, 21, of Haldipokhar, Jharkhand, and Suraj Murmu, 23, of Sidadih Manpur village in Jharkhand. Police are now on a lookout for Madhuri Kashyap and owner of the accommodation.
{{/usCountry}}As per the police, Ankur Verma and Gaurav Verma, who are brothers, are the brains behind the fraud and Ankur even has an MCom degree. Raju Yadav and Suraj Murmu used to provide them with fake accounts to deposit the money. Suraj Murmu also used his own account for getting the funds transferred from victims. They had been running the call centre for the past one-and-a-half years and have duped over 100 people across India.
A case under Sections 419 (punishment for cheating by personation), 420 (cheating), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (fraudulently or dishonestly uses as genuine any document which he knows or has reason to believe to be a forged document) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) has been registered against the accused. They were produced in the court on Friday and sent to five-day police remand.