Cyber fraud: Jamshedpur police freeze Rs 17 lakh in 10 accounts after woman duped of Rs 75.53 lakh
Pravati’s nephew Chandan Banerjee received a call and the caller introduced himself as an employee of Vodafone mobile tower company on January 29, 2019.
The police on Friday freezed Rs 17 lakh in 10 bank accounts after a Jamshedpur-based woman was allegedly duped of Rs 75.53 lakh on the pretext of setting up mobile tower by cyber fraudsters through a Kolkata-based fake company, identified as Deal Money Security Company.
“We have freezed Rs 17 lakh in 10 accounts and traced as many as 19 accused in the fraud worth Rs 75.53 lakh with a woman, a resident of Kadma. Pravati Chatterjee was allegedly duped on the pretext of setting up mobile tower at her village land in Sonamukhi village in West Midnapore district of West Bengal,” Upendra Mandal, Jamshedpur Cyber police station officer-in-charge (OC), said.
“The woman has alleged in her written complaint late last evening that she and her nephew have transferred Rs 75.53 lakh to various accounts of the said company since February 21, 2019, in instalments. All the 19 accused are based in West Bengal, mostly in Kolkata. Preliminary investigation has found the company to be fake. We have sought more details of bank transactions related to these accounts,” Mandal said.
As per the FIR, Pravati’s nephew Chandan Banerjee received a call and the caller introduced himself as an employee of Vodafone mobile tower company on January 29, 2019.
“The caller offered Chandan a deal under which we were promised a one-time payment of Rs 30-40 lakh and monthly rent of Rs 18,000 for allowing them to set up a mobile tower on our land in Sonamukhi village under West Midnapore district,” Pravati has alleged in the FIR.
Pravati gave her approval to set up the mobile tower on their said land in Sonamukhi.
“Soon after, a woman named Antara Roy called her back and told that she needed to pay Rs 35,400 as registration fee by cheque at the office of Deal Money Security Company in Salt Lake, Kolkata,” Pravati has written in her complaint.
Pravati went to the office of Deal Money Security Company on February 21, 2019, and submitted the cheque of Rs 35, 400.
“Since then, Sagar Roy, Amit Sharma, Sanjay Chowdhary, Rajvir Sinha, Ranvir and Kaveri kept calling her from different mobile numbers and got her to transfer Rs 64.12 lakh from her Canara Bank account to various bank accounts provided by them between February 21 and June 12, 2020,” Pravati has alleged.
Similarly, Rs 5.70 lakh from her sister Jayanti’s account and Rs 5.70 lakh from Chandan’s account in Punjab National Bank in Kharagpur were also transferred to their accounts during the corresponding period.