Mastermind of criminal gang from Gujarat arrested

Kolkata: State Criminal Investigation Department (CID) nabbed a mastermind of a gang from Gujarat that used to dupe people impersonating bank employees and on the pretext of KYC update.

The accused Shah Darshil Pareshbhai of Bhavnagar in Gujarat was picked up by the CID Cyber Crime Police Station cops on Friday night. He was produced at a local court on Saturday and the magistrate granted police transit remand for Pareshbhai till April 25 to bring him to the city. CID sources said a senior citizen living in Sonarpur area lodged a complaint alleging that a person pretending to be bank employee siphoned off about Rs 5 lakh from his account. During the probe, sleuths found that the call was made from Jamtara in Jharkhand and the money that was siphoned off from the complainant’s bank account was used to buy gift cards online.

Later, Pareshbhai received the gift card details from the caller and subsequently bought many things using the gift cards. The objects bought were reportedly delivered to Punjab and Haryana. During the probe, CID officials found that the Jamtara gang nowadays has changed their method of cheating. Earlier they used to make calls and used the money to buy things or withdraw cash from accounts.

But now a CID probe has revealed that by changing the method, fraudsters from three to four states are now involved in one racket. While calls are being made from one state, some people sitting in some other state are buying the gift cards. Also the goods that are being bought using the gift cards are delivered somewhere else.