8 inter-state cyber fraudsters nabbed for duping Odisha couple of over Rs 76 Lakh

Bhubaneswar: The Cyber Crime unit of Odisha Police Crime Branch claimed to have arrested a group of eight interstate cyber fraudsters from New Delhi and Uttar Pradesh in connection with duping case recently.

Accused Raghu Anand (31), Bhim (33), Rupali Gupta (26), Pramoda Valli (66), Yogendra Singh (34), Bhanu Pratap Yadav (47), Ashish Kumar (24) and Tej Kumar (60) have been produced in the court of Sub-Divisional Judicial Magistrate (SDJM) in the capital city here.

The police have booked them under Sections 419, 420, 465, 467, 471, 120-B and 34 of the IPC and Sections 66-C and 66-D of the IT Act.

The police have seized Rs 9.3 lakh in cash, 12 pieces gold ornaments, 14 pieces of silver ornaments, 21 debit cards, nine credit cards, a laptop, 17 mobile phones, 22 SIM cards, one SD card, four pen drives, five Aadhaar cards, two PAN cards, two diving licences and seven ID cards from the accused.

One Dillip Kumar Jalan had lodged a complaint with the Cyber Crime Unit of the Crime Branch in connection with an insurance fraud to the tune of Rs 76 lakh.

Jalan’s wife had a HDFC life insurance policy with maturity amount of Rs 20 lakh. Some unidentified persons had contacted Jalan over phone in July this year to upgrade the insurance policy to Rs 2.75 crore.

The callers had convinced Jalan to deposit Rs 76,15, 955 in four separate bank accounts for upgradation of the insurance policy.

Jalan later realized that he had been duped by the fraudsters.

The Cyber Crime Unit had registered a case in this regard and launched a probe. During investigation, the police came to know that the persons involved in the cheating case were residing outside Odisha.

According to police, accused Bhim, Raghu and Rupali were earlier working in the insurance sector.

The trio had convinced Jalan to deposit Rs 76 lakh in four different bank accounts to upgrade his wife’s insurance policy. They had transferred the money to the bank accounts of Bhanu Pratap and subsequently windrwan the same from various ATMs, police said.