Powai police register FIR in debit card scam case

A day after HT reported on how the Powai police did not register the complaint of an engineer, whose card was cloned and used in France, claiming “they were not allowed to travel abroad to probe cases”, the Powai police on Friday registered an FIR in the case.

A day after HT reported on how the Powai police did not register the complaint of an engineer, whose card was cloned and used in France, claiming “they were not allowed to travel abroad to probe cases”, the Powai police on Friday registered an FIR in the case.

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Zohar Jaorawala’s debit card is suspected to have been cloned and used in France for to make purchases worth Rs76,300 in January. Zohar approached the Powai police and the cyber police, but both did not register a complaint. When he called the cyber cell, an official told him they only probed cases above Rs. 2 lakh. But senior inspector N More at the cyber cell said there was no such rule.

Senior inspector of Powai police station Bajirao Bhosle said, “We have recorded his statement again and registered an FIR under sections 420 (cheating), 421 (fraudulent concealment of property) of the Indian Penal Code and section 66 (hacking) of the Information Technology (IT) Act.” The Powai police said they would ask the cyber police to help investigate the case.

“I am happy the FIR has been registered, but they should have done this when I first approached them,” said Zohar. “But I am shocked why I was told the cyber police investigated cases only above Rs2 lakh. I had asked them twice.”

On January 16, Zohar received texts from his bank that his card had been used to shop at Walmart in Chantilly, France. He was shocked as he had not even heard of Chantilly. He approached the Powai police that only gave him an application that he could submit to the bank to prove there had been a fraud. He was told that neither the Powai police nor the cyber police would be able to investigate the case.