Kochi: The cyber crime wing of the Kochi City police have arrested four Uttar Pradesh natives on charges of duping an Ernakulam resident of Rs 40 lakh by making a fake WhatsApp call.
Vipin Kumar Mishra (22), Dheeraj Kumar (35), Ummath Ali (26) and Sakshimouli Raj (27) were arrested by a police team from their native state recently. The victim in the case is the chief financial officer of a leading construction company in Kerala. The accused were produced before a court and remanded on Saturday.
"The accused created a WhatsApp account with the image of the company's director and called the financial officer. The accused, impersonating the builder who was in Dubai at that time, asked the finance officer to deposit Rs 40 lakh immediately to a particular account and not to call him back. However, the employee tried to call back his boss, but he could not reach the former. Fearing the anger of his boss, the employee immediately transferred the amount -- Rs 20 lakh in two instalments," Thrikkakara Assistant Commissioner Baby P V told Onmanorama.
The case was registered on June 1 based on a complaint from the duped person.
The officer said the arrested are part of an interstate gang involved in a series of online financial crimes. The prime accused runs an Aadhaar digital seva kendra and he lured his customers by promising them a commission. He got such customers' account numbers and ATM cards. The gang's modus operandi was to force their victims to deposit money into such accounts. They withdrew the amounts from ATMs in different places and led a luxurious life.
The police conducted the inquiry based on the mobile numbers, bank accounts, IMEI info of the accused. The cops found that money was withdrawn from Gorakhpur and Kushinagar districts. However, the phone numbers were traced to Bahraich and Sant Kabir districts. The accused were nabbed from the two districts on different days.
One of the accused, Sakshimouli Raj, is booked by the Mahuli police of UP in three cybercrime cases while Ummath Ali is a history-sheeter accused in rape and theft cases.
A police team led by Inspector Thomas K J stayed in UP for 12 days to nab the accused. Deputy Commissioner of Police S Sasidharan IPS and Thrikkakara Assistant Commissioner Baby P V supervised the probe as per the instructions from City Police Commissioner Sethuraman IPS.
SCPOs Shyam Kumar, Arun R, Ajith Raj and Nikhil George and CPO Alfit Andrews were in the police team.
