Four try withdraw money from Covid victim’s account, arrested

The Mumbai crime branch arrested four men who allegedly tried to withdraw money from the bank account of an 81-year-old private developer in Juhu, who died of Covid

The Mumbai crime branch arrested four men who allegedly tried to withdraw money from the bank account of an 81-year-old private developer in Juhu, who died of Covid -19 last month. The main accused worked with the deceased.

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He forged the victim’s Aadhar card and bank documents and tried to withdraw money through a mobile application.

The arrested accused Shafiq Mehboob Shaikh, 39, Pritesh alias Pintu Bipinchandra Mandaliya, Arshad Rafiq Sayyed and Swapnil Oglekar are residents of Mira Road area.

According to the police, Shaikh is the mastermind of the racket and he was working as a liaison person in the developer’s office. The developer died on June 20 of Covid-19.

Shaikh stole the deceased’s bank details like cheque book, Aadhar card and few other documents from his office after his death and planned to withdraw money from his bank account through a cyber fraudster.

Shaikh then gave all those documents to his another accomplice who created a bogus Aadhar card by changing deceased’s photograph with his picture and obtained duplicate SIM card of the deceased which was registered with the bank from a service provider, claiming that he has lost his sim card, said police inspector Chimaji Adhav of unit 11.

After getting the SIM card, another accomplice tried to withdraw money from the deceased’s bank account through a banking app, after generating a one-time password, added Adhav.

The deceased’s wife’s bank account was handled by the bank manager. After the death, when the manager visited the office and found cheque books missing, a complaint was registered in the Juhu police station.

During an inquiry, the official of unit 11 learnt about the accused and they conducted a raid in a room in Dahisar and arrested the accused. Police seized the deceased’s Aadhar card, bank details and a duplicate SIM card, deputy commissioner of police Akbar Pathan of the crime branch said. The accused were produced in the court and they were remanded in police custody till July 31.