Indore (Madhya Pradesh): The Crime Branch arrested the seventh accused in a digital arrest case involving Rs1.60 crore from a businesswoman in the city. The accused was nabbed from a village on the Bangladesh-Assam border, where he runs a computer centre. He had opened a corporate bank account with a transaction limit of crores of rupees to facilitate the fraud.
The accused travelled by flight to Pune and Kolkata to transfer the money into ten different accounts. Police are conducting raids across various states to uncover further links. Additional DCP Rajesh Dandotiya said that the accused is Abhishek Chakraborty, a resident of Cooch Behar which is located on the Bangladesh-Assam border in West Bengal. The police team had to travel 1800 km from the city via road to arrest him.
The accused allegedly told cops that he runs a computer class in the village. He was lured by the gang's leader with promises of quick and easy money. The gang instructed him to open bank accounts, including a current account with the Bank of Maharashtra for the fraud. However, when the transaction limit of Rs 50 lakhs was deemed insufficient, he created a fake firm in his father's name to open another account with Bandhan Bank, which had a higher transaction limit. Abhishek allegedly confessed to opening these accounts in exchange for a higher commission on the fraudulent amount.
He was directed by the gang to mislead police by conducting transactions from different locations. Initially, he was sent to Lucknow, where he met other gang members. However, at the last moment, the gang changed the transaction site to Pune and provided him with a flight ticket. On November 12, Abhishek reached Pune, where he met two gang members. They took him to a hotel, where the entire setup for the fraudulent transactions was shown to him. Over two days, the gang used Abhishek’s bank account to transfer funds from victims across the country into multiple accounts. In a single night, Rs 1.93 crore was deposited into Abhishek’s account, including Rs 60 lakhs from the city’s businesswoman.
Bank Manager gave warning call
Abhishek told cops that when such large sums were deposited into his account, the bank manager called to inquire. Abhishek lied, claiming the money was from investors in his company. After the transactions, he flew back to Kolkata, and deactivated the bank account and SIM card to evade arrest. The gang had promised him Rs 2.5 lakhs for his act but had only paid him Rs 25,000.
Earlier arrest
The Crime Branch had earlier arrested six other individuals, including a father-son duo and four others from Vadodara and Surat in Gujarat. The arrested include Prateek Jariwala, Abhishek Jariwala, Chandrabhan Bansal, Rakesh Kumar Bansal, Vivek Ranjan alias Pintu Giri from Kheda district, Gujarat, and Altaf Qureshi from Anand district, Gujarat.
On November 9, Vandana Gupta (59), a resident of Bicholi Mardana, received a call from an unknown number. The caller impersonated officials from the RBI and CBI and claimed that Rs 2 crore had been fraudulently transacted in her account. The gang intimidated her into providing details of her property, fixed deposits, shares, bonds, LIC policies, gold and land. Later, Vandana transferred Rs 1.60 crore into multiple accounts over three days as instructed by the gang.
