OTP Sharing Scam: Odisha STF Arrests Pune Software Firm Employee

The Special Task Force (STF) of Odisha Police has arrested a software company employee for his alleged involvement in an OTP selling and sharing scam, a police official said on Saturday.

Abhijeet Sanjay Jambure was arrested from Pune and was produced before the local court in the city and then brought to Bhubaneswar after getting a three-day transit remand. He will be produced before a Bhubaneswar court on Saturday, the official said. Jambure did his post graduate in statistics from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University, Ananda, Gujarat, and was working in a software company in Pune.

Accused was in regular touch with two Pakistani intelligence officials

The STF officials said Abhijeet was in regular touch with two Pakistani intelligence officials for a long time. In 2018, he met one Syed Danish Ali Naqvi of Khanki, Faisalabad, Pakistan through Facebook Messenger, who identified himself as a freelancer at Chegg (an American education technology company). "Abhijeet had shared his user id and password of Chegg to Danish. Danish was working in Chegg on Abhijeet's identity but the earnings were credited in the latter's account in India. Against his favour, Abhijeet had to do some work for Danish," the officials said.

According to the STF, Danish introduced Abhijeet to his friend Khurram allies Abdul Hamid of Karachi, Pakistan. Khurram is believed to be a senior Pakistan Army intelligence officer having a big base/network of agents in India. And as per the instruction of Khurram, he used to transfer money to various PIOs working in India. Abhijeet also talked with at least seven Pakistan citizens and 10 Nigerian Citizens through WhatsApp, they said. Earlier, the STF has detected crypto trading worth Rs 1 crore through various Indian and foreign exchanges by two of the accused of the OTP sharing gang. So far, six persons have been arrested for sharing OTP of pre-activated SIMs to some criminals and suspected Pakistani agents. The special task force is conducting further investigation to nab other accused who are involved in the scam.