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Man arrested from Bengal for duping online payment firm
A 20-year-old person has been arrested by Pune cyber police for defrauding an online payment company of ?3.5 crore. The accused used illegal mobile handsets to coordinate the transfer of funds. The investigation is ongoing, with multiple accused still at large.
PUNE:
A team of Pune cyber police have arrested a 20-year-old person for duping an online payment company to the tune of ₹3.5 crore, police said.
The accused, Ankit Kumar Pande, a resident of Durgapur district in West Bengal was arrested from his native place this week. After the police got the transit remand on Saturday, Pande was produced in court and got police custody till July 19, police said.
The Yerwada-based firm provides online payment services to its customers across Maharashtra.
To conduct business, the company has a designated fleet of registered agents. Since August 11, 2022, 65 of the registered agents have transferred ₹3.52 crore from the company Virtual Payment Address (VPA) account to 44 separate bank accounts without their commission by coordinating with one another over illegal mobile handsets.
According to police, the accused took benefits of the technical facility to transfer the account.
A case regarding the same has been registered at the Cyber Police station under IPC sections 419, 420, and 34 and relevant sections of the Information Technology Act.
Meenal Supe Patil, Senior Police Inspector (SPI) said, “We got the location of the accused in Delhi after technical analysis. As a result, our team went to apprehend him. However, by that time, the accused had relocated. He was continuously on the road to avoid arrest.’
She further informed that after getting transit remand, the accused was brought to Pune on Friday and produced in court on Saturday.
Police refused to share more details about the multi-state scam citing many accused still on the run.
