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.