STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: The Crime Branch wing of Jammu and Kashmir Police on Monday booked an interstate gang of fraudsters who duped several people of lakhs of rupees from their bank accounts by impersonating as bank employees.
“The accused used to call their innocent victim and introduced themselves as bank officials,” SSP, Crime branch Jammu, Mubassir Latifi said.
He said a case was registered after they received a complaint from a BSF official who was duped of a huge sum of money.
“In his complaint the BSF official said that he received a phone call from the accused who introduced himself as manager of a bank and asked him to share the PIN of his debit card on the pretext of making correction in the bank records,” Latifi said.
He said that during the course of enquiry, bank transaction details of the account were obtained and it was found that fraudulent withdrawals and internet purchases worth Rs 2,77,300 were made through the bank account of the accused.
“The people who had withdrawn the money from the bank account include, Prashant Kumar Varnawal, Pradeep Mahto, Ram Chander Mandal, Sohan Singh (all residents of Jharkhand), Laishram Robel Singh of Chajing Karam, Imphal, Shyamal Hazra, Ananya Dutta, Ajay Kumar Gupta — all residents of Kolkata,” the officer said.
Latifi said that during the course of enquiry it was established that the accused used to call people introducing them as bank employees to seek PIN details of their ATM and debit cards on the pretext of making certain corrections in the bank records with the intentions to cheat them.
“A case under various sections of Ranbir Penal Code (RPC) and IT Act have been registered in Crime Branch, Jammu and further investigation has been taken up,” Latifi said.
Latifi said number of similar complaints have also been received in Crime Branch from different parts of Jammu province where innocent people have been duped of their money by impersonators.
“All those complaints would also be investigated, the whole racket of these tricksters would be unearthed and culprits would be brought to book,” he said.
