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Chandigarh: Gang that scammed CRPF personnel over phone busted
Surinderjit, a CRPF personnel , had told the police that on December 14 last year, he received a WhatsApp call from the man, who claimed to be calling from Canada. He asked for his bank account number to transfer ₹15.7 lakh and shared a payment receipt for the amount.
Police have busted a gang of phone scammers that had been duping people by posing as their relatives.
The accused have been identified as Faisal Ansari, 22, Mohd Mazid, 24, and Nadeem Ahmed, 34, all hailing from Bijnor, Uttar Pradesh. Faisal and Nadeem are BSc graduates, and Mohd Mazid has studied till Class 12.
Their arrest came following a complaint by a CRPF personnel who was duped of ₹1 lakh by a phone caller posing as his cousin who lives abroad.
Surinderjit, a resident of CRPF camp, Hallomajra, had told the police that on December 14 last year, he received a WhatsApp call from the man, who claimed to be calling from Canada. He asked for his bank account number to transfer ₹15.7 lakh and shared a payment receipt for the amount.
But after sometime, through another phone call, the caller asked him to transfer ₹3.5 lakh to the bank account of one of his acquaintances whose mother was unwell.
Trusting that he would be receiving ₹15.7 lakh soon, Surinderjit transferred ₹1 lakh to the said bank account, but never got the promised ₹15.7 lakh, following which he approached the police.
On his complaint, police had booked the unidentified caller under Sections 419, 420, 467, 468, 471 and 120-B of the Indian Penal Code at the Cyber Crime police station.
Following a probe, police conducted a raid at Govindpura, Manimajra, from where they arrested Faisal Ansari for the crime. Following his disclosure, the other two accused were also arrested and the CRPF personnel’s money was recovered from them.
Police also recovered a mobile phone used in the crime.
The accused were produced before a court and sent to three-day police custody.
Transactions worth over ₹1.5 crore found in accused’s accounts
Further investigation has revealed that transactions worth more than ₹1 crore were made from the account of Mohd Mazid, and over ₹50 lakh from the account of accused Nadeem and Faisal. Crime proceeds from these bank accounts are said to have been invested in Binance cryptocurrency platform through Hawala transactions.
