
Raipur: Bilaspur police has achieved a major success
in its “Operation 65” with the arrest of 5 people involved with Pakistani
fraudsters in a lottery scam.
This gang has committed more than a thousand thugs
across the country. Pakistani gangsters including Bade Mamu (Asghar), Chhote
Mamu (Asraf) and Salim carried out the incident. They have ties with fraudsters
in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Malaysia. Many states of India have been
targeted by the gang besides targeting many in other countries too.
As per the complainant Janakram Patel, he was
repeatedly receiving messages and calls on WhatsApp from an international
number—which was of Pakistan—calling himself as Mukesh Ambani saying that Patel
has won a lottery in Jio’s lucky draw. The gang trapped him and made him
deposit about Rs 65 lakh in various accounts from February 01 to August 2020. Meanwhile,
when Patel realized that he is getting trapped in the name of lottery, he
registered a complaint regarding the same in the police station. As per the
directions received from senior officials, under the leadership of Indian
Police Service officer Gaurav Rampravesh Rai, the police City Kotwali station
in-charge/ Cyber Cell Kalim Khan, Sub-Inspector Cyber Cell Prabhakar Tiwari
formed a special team for further investigations.
As per police, during the investigations it was revealed
that the scammers used to contact Patel through WhatsApp video or audio call or
through chat only. They asked him to deposit amount in different account
numbers (12 in total in various locations including Kolkata, Bihar, and Uttar
Pradesh) which belonged to different branches as a part of procedures to claim
the lottery amount. Besides, while location tracing it was found that various Pakistani
numbers and Indian number second line number whose location was found in
Pakistan were used.
The investigation team collected detailed information
regarding the bank accounts and mobile numbers. Based on the information
collected regarding account holders various teams were formed and deployed to
Indore, Orissa, Mumbai to trace the accused Virat Sing.
Operation Madhya Pradesh
One of the teams which went to Rewa (MP) arrested
the accussed Virat Sing. The accused said that he works for Chote Mamu alias
Asraf and Bade Mamu alias Asghar and Salim of Pakistan. He interacts with them
through WhatsApp. The Pakistani thugs used to deposit the money in various
accounts of various banks provided by Virat Sing while cheating people by
luring them in lotteries. Virat was asked to deduct his commission and transfer
the amount to the thugs in other accounts provided by them. In addition to his
account, the accused Virat also collected information about other accounts and
lured them in the scam business offering 3 percent of the deposited amount.
Most of which used to be account holders of Rewa and Dewas of Madhya Pradesh.
Account holder Shivam Thakur and Sanju Chauhan were also arrested from Dewas in
Madhya Pradesh.
The amount received by accused Virat in his account
was transferred to accounts of different states across the country, such as
Hyderabad, Karnataka, Bangalore, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Orissa, Uttar
Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Assam, Delhi. The largest amount was deposited by the
applicant Janakaram Patel in the account of the accused Virat which was
transferred online in Mumbai Worli.
Operation Mumbai
Virat Sing and Pakistani thugs had transferred about
Rs 45 lakh to Rajesh and Harsh Jaiswal’s account. The team went Mumbai and took
Rajesh into custody for investigation. The inquiry revealed that Rajesh handles
the accounts himself. The amount sent to its account is transferred to Digital
Currency Beat Coin (BTS).
Operation Odisha
Sita Ram Gowda, the director of Digital Payment
Solution, was detained by a team from Odisha. About Rs 15 lakh was deposited in
his account.
Details of accused arrested:
- Virat Sing father Rajendra Sing, age 21 years
resident of Sirmaur in Rewa district (MP)
- Shivam Thakur, Father Rajendra Singh Thakur, Age 20
years, resident of Itama in Dewas district (MP)
- Sanju Chauhan, Father Gokul Chauhan, Age 20 years, resident of Itama in Dewas district (MP)
- Rajesh Jaiswal, Father Sukhau Jaiswal, Age 55 years,
resident of Worli Mumbai
- Sitaram Gowda, Father Sudarshan Gowda, Age 35 years,
resident of Ganjam district in Orissa
Passbooks and ATM cards of various banks, laptops, mobiles and cash were seized from all the accused.
Meanwhile, the police team includes Gaurav Rai (IPS),
Kalim Khan, Prabhakar Tiwari, Manoj Naik, Inspector Brijlal Bhardwaj, Shiv
Chandra, Gajendra Sharma, Balbir Singh, Santosh Yadav, Dhamendra sahu, Naveen
Ekka, Deepak Upadhyay, Deepak Yadav, Tadveer Porte, Vikas Ram, Mukesh Verma, Rakesh
Banjare, Sonu Pal, Rajesh Narang, Gokul Jangde, Sandeep Sharma, Rajesh Yadav
and Nakul Singh.
Bilaspur Police has been receiving special support
from MP, Mumbai and Odisha police. IG Bilaspur Dipanshu Kabra and Bilaspur SP Prashant
Agarwal have made an announcement to facilitate the police team for their exemplary
work. Besides, Bilaspur SP Prashant Agarwal has requested citizens to beware of
such fraudsters.