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2 held for duping Vardhman Group owner Oswal of ₹7 cr
Punjab Police on Sunday busted a gang of inter-state cyber fraudsters who duped noted industrialist and chairman of Ludhiana-based Vardhman Group SP Oswal of ₹7 crore
Ludhiana : Punjab Police on Sunday busted a gang of inter-state cyber fraudsters who duped noted industrialist and chairman of Ludhiana-based Vardhman Group SP Oswal of ₹7 crore.
Ludhiana police commissioner Kuldeep Singh Chahal said two cyber criminals have been arrested and ₹5.25 crore have been recovered from them.
According to Ludhiana police, the recovery is the largest ever in the country in a cybercrime case, as confirmed by the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre under the ministry of home affairs (MHA).
Seven other members of this gang have been identified and efforts were on to nab them, Chahal said, adding that all the nine members of the gang belonged to Assam and West Bengal.
The fraudsters cheated Oswal by getting ₹7 crore withdrawn from various bank accounts belonging to the industrialist.
One of them introduced himself as a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officer and showed the industrialist a fake Supreme Court arrest warrant and threatened him with digital arrest, police said.
The cyber cell of the police registered the case on the complaint of Oswal and said it solved the case within 48 hours.
The accused have been identified as Atnu Chaudhary of Lokhra Road, Guwahati, and Anand Kumar of Paltan Bazaar, Guwahati. Their aides — Nimmi Bhattacharjee from Guwahati, Alok Rangi and Gulam Mortaza from Malda (West Bengal), Sanjay Sutradhar from Hazarapur (Assam), Rintu from Nalwari (Assam), Rumi Kalita from Guwahati (Assam), and one Zakir — are still at large.
Giving details, station house officer, cybercrime police station, Ludhiana, Jatinder Singh said fraudsters contacted Oswal on August 29 and 30, posing as CBI officers. “They claimed a parcel bound for Malaysia, allegedly sent by Oswal’s company, had been seized by Mumbai customs. The parcel reportedly contained 58 passports and 16 ATM cards, and the fraudsters convinced Oswal that Supreme Court arrest warrant had been issued against him,” the SHO said.
Despite Oswal’s insistence that he had no connection to the parcel, the fraudsters managed to persuade him to transfer ₹7 crore into their bank accounts. “After Oswal filed a complaint, an FIR was registered on August 31, and police immediately launched an investigation,” the SHO said.
“We identified the key accused within 48 hours, tracing them to Assam, Delhi and West Bengal. Police teams were dispatched to Guwahati and other cities, and we were able to recover ₹5.25 crore from the gang’s bank accounts, which was reverted to Oswal’s account,” he said.
An FIR has been registered under Sections 308 (2) (extortion), 319 (2) (cheating by personation), 318 (4) (cheating and dishonestly inducing the delivery of property), 351 (2) (criminal intimidation), and 61 (2) (criminal conspiracy) of the BNS, along with sections 66-C and D of the Information Technology Act at the cybercrime police station in Ludhiana.
