Kolkata: Bidhannagar City Police arrested a man from Kerala for allegedly cheating people by using stolen bank credentials to transfer money and purchase expensive goods.
The accused, identified as Kurapati Ajay, was picked up from Ernakulam late on Sunday night and brought to Salt Lake on Monday morning. He was produced before the Bidhannagar ACJM Court, which remanded him in police custody for 13 days.
Police said Ajay had been involved in similar offences in at least 13 states and major metropolitan cities across the country. “He forged multiple identities using fake Aadhaar cards and used several SIM cards to cover his trail,” an officer said.
According to police, a case was registered in July after Vinay Kumar, a resident of Bihar, lodged a complaint at the Bidhannagar East police station. Kumar alleged that his purse — containing several bank cards and a costly smartphone — was stolen by another guest. Investigators later found that the suspect, who had used a false identity and submitted a forged Aadhaar card, had made several purchases using Kumar’s credit card, including gold jewellery and another smartphone. A substantial sum was also transferred to a different bank account.
While tracking the transactions, police discovered that the bank documents submitted were also fake. Further inquiry revealed that Ajay had carried out similar frauds across multiple states. Following coordination with police units in those states and the use of technical surveillance, his live location was traced to Kerala, leading to his arrest.
Investigations have revealed that Ajay, who has completed higher secondary education and undertaken short-term courses in ethical hacking, used to book hotels and guest houses in advance to identify potential targets. After each crime, he would destroy the SIM cards and adopt a new identity to evade detection.