Cooch Behar: A husband-and-wife duo has been arrested by the Cooch Behar District Police for defrauding people across the country of crores of rupees over the past 18 months, using a scheme reminiscent of the Bollywood film ‘Bunty Aur Babli’.
The accused, Shubhajit Ballabh (28) and Riya Ballabh (24), residents of Dhantala in Nadia district, allegedly posed as army officers to deceive Customer Service Points (CSPs) near military camps across several states.
According to police sources, two separate fraud cases were registered in Tufanganj and Sahebganj police stations in May and June last year. A special investigation team tracked the couple to a hotel in Darbhanga, Bihar and arrested them. They were brought to Cooch Behar on transit remand. Cooch Behar SP Dyutiman Bhattacharya said: “The couple has been running this racket nationwide for the last one and a half years. In 2024, they committed 877 frauds.
This year, they have attempted 68 cases—19 in Cooch Behar alone—defrauding Rs 48.15 lakh.” Their method involved gathering information about army personnel and then calling CSP operators while impersonating officers, requesting fund transfers. The phone numbers would then become unreachable and the named officers were found to be fictitious.
Police traced their last known location near a CRPF camp in Uttar Pradesh before their arrest, suggesting they were planning another fraud.
Both accused will be produced in court on Wednesday. Police officials confirmed that further investigation and custodial interrogation will follow.