Odisha Crime Branch arrests 8 inter-state cyber fraudsters from Delhi and Uttar Pradesh

Bhubaneswar: The Cyber Crime Unit of Crime Branch has been successful in arresting 8 accused persons from New Delhi, Fatehpur & Mau in UP. They are part of a group of cyber fraudsters who were cheating innocent people in the name of Insurance Policy and Loan.

Based on the report of Dillip Kumar Jalan, a resident of Bhubaneswar that he and his wife had become victims of insurance fraud to the tune of Rs. 76,15,955/-. The informant’s wife had a HDFC life insurance policy with maturity amount of Rs. 20 lakhs. At the beginning of July, several unidentified individuals contacted him from several mobile numbers to upgrade the policy. One such offer was to upgrade the existing Rs. 20 lakhs policy to Rs. 2.75 crore and facilitate an early release. He was convinced by these callers to deposit different amount in four separate accounts. He deposited Rs. 76,15,955/-, following their directions, in four separate bank accounts SBI (2), Kotak Mahindra (1) and Axis Bank (1) between July 5, 2023 and September 28, 2023.

CID CB Cyber Crime PS Case No. 21/2023 was registered on 04.10.2023 u/s 419/ 420/ 465/ 467/ 471/ 120-B/ 34 IPC r.w. 66-C/ 66-D of IT Act. After collection of necessary information and digital evidence and after coming to know that the accused persons are residing outside Odisha, Three teams of Cyber Crime Unit, CID CB proceeded to New Delhi, Fatehpur & Mau in UP.

During the investigation it came to light that the accused persons Bhim, Raghu Anand, and Rupali Gupta were earlier working in Insurance and Loan related field. The accused Bhim used to collect information regarding policy holders or those seeking loan from various sources. These three operated like a call centre and contacted those persons. Using that experience, they allured the informant by saying that his wife’s Insurance Policy, whose maturity amount was Rs. 20 lakhs can be upgraded to Rs. 2.75 crores by paying some charges. On that guise they convinced the informant into depositing money into accounts of 4 persons as mentioned below:

1. Pramoda Bali – Rs. 28.73 lakhs (SBI)
2. Tej Kumar – Rs. 8.32 lakhs (SBI)
3. Kavya Singh – Rs. 27.54 lakhs (Axis)
4. Asish Kumar – Rs. 11.56 Lakhs (Kotak Mahindra)

After siphoning off Rs. 76,15,955/- from the informant, the accused persons viz. Raghu Anand, Rupali Gupta & Bhim transferred money into bank accounts of Bhanu Pratap Yadav. Subsequently, Raghu Anand and Bhim who are the main brain behind the crime, withdrew the money from various ATMs.

The following are the accused persons arrested:

1. Raghu Anand (31 Yrs), S/o Pawan Kumar, At:-D-313, Tirkha Colony, P.S:- Ballabhgarh, Dist: Faridabad, Hariyana presently running Call Centre at the rented house of Rajneesh Verma, 2nd Fllor, 138, GF Block E-3rd (K G Khosla) Molarband Extn, Badarpur Delhi -110044
2. Bhim (33 Yrs), S/o Deshraj, Vill: Landohla, P.S Chandpur, Dist: Faridabad, Haryana.
3. Rupali Gupta @ Aditi Aggrwal @ Niddhi Sharma @ Mansi (26 yrs), D/o: Ravinder Gupta, At: 621/C, Hari Nagar Ashram, P.S: Jeevan Nagar, New Delhi-110014 presently working at the rented house of Sri Rajneesh Verma, 2nd Fllor, 138, GF Block E-3rd ( K G Khosla) Molarband Extn, Badarpur Delhi -110044.
4. Pramoda Valli (66 Yrs), Flat No: 25, Pocket-9A, Jasola Vihar, HIG Flat, Near Shaheen Bagh Metro Station, P.S Sarita Vihar, New Delhi-110025.
5. Yogendra Singh, DOB- 22.08.1989, S/o: Giriraj Singh, At/P- Radha Nagar, PS- Radha Nagar, Dist – Fatehpur. Permanent Address: Village – Asothar, PSAsothar, Dist – Fatehpur, Uttar Pradesh.
6. Bhanu Pratap Yadav (47), S/o Late Basudev Yadav, At-Jamalpur, Mirzapur, Ghosi, Mau (Uttar Pradesh).
7. Ashish Kumar (24), S/o Prabhu Prakash, At-Otopur, Indara, Mau, Pin275102, Uttar Pradesh.
8. Tej Kumar (60), S/o Late Khedan Ram, At-Otopur, Indara, Mau, Pin-275102, Uttar Pradesh.

Articles Seized from the possession of the accused persons:-

• Cash – Rs. 9,30,800/-
• Gold – 4 rings, 4 ear rings, 04 nose pin
• Silver – 4 pairs of anklet, 10 pairs of toe ring
• Debit card – 21
• Credit Card – 09
• Laptop – 01
• Mobile phones – 17
• SIM cards – 22
• SD card – 01 3
• Pen Drive – 04
• Aadhar Card – 05
• PAN Card – 02
• Driving License – 02
• ID card – 07

The accused persons were forwarded to the court of SDJM, Bhubaneswar u/s 419/ 420/ 465/ 467/ 471/ 120-B/ 34 IPC r.w 66-C/ 66-D of the IT Act, after availing transit remand from New Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. Investigation is continuing.

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