By Our Correspondent
BHUBANESWAR: Economic Offences Wing, Bhubaneswar has arrested accused Rajat Kumar of Mohalia, Kharadian, Dist- Yamuna Nagar, Haryana on 04.02.2024 from Paonta Sahib, Dist-Sirmur, Himachal Pradesh, in EOW PS Case No. 20 dtd.24.06.2023 U/s 419/420/467/468/471/120-B IPC, R/w Sec. 66 (D) of IT Act, 2000. The accused was produced before the Hon’ble Court of ACJM, Paonta Sahib, HP, on 05.02.2024, and was brought to Bhubaneswar on the strength of 04 days transit remand.
The accused will be produced before the Hon’ble Designated Court under OPID-cum-SPL Court for EOW, at Cuttack today i.e. on 07.02.2024. – This case was registered on the report of Ms. Ratna Tripathy (a journalist) of Nayapalli, Bhubaneswar. Investigation, so far, disclosed that on 19.06.2023 Ms. Tripathy received a phone call (VoIP call) from a person who introduced himself as an employee of FedEx, Hyderabad, and told her that a parcel containing six Pass ports, one Laptop, five ATM Cards, 150 Gms. of Narcotics drugs had been sent to her and has been intercepted by NCB Mumbai officials.
– When she denied sending or ordering any parcel, the caller asked her to come down personally to the Narcotic Bureau Cell Mumbai to clarify her point and if she cannot attend physically, she can be connected to Mr. Gill of Narcotic Bureau, Mumbai over Skype. If she ignores this she will be prosecuted under various charges including narcotics case and money laundering etc.
– Accordingly, she connected to Skype, the site of Mumbai Narcotic Bureau and a person who introduced himself as Mr. Gill, Head of the Narcotic Bureau Cell, Mumbai, told her that a case of money laundering, Narcotics smuggling and violation of Crypto norm has been filed against her due to the illegal transactions through her Bank accounts. Also they told her that she has links with Gangster Islam Malik.
– Then she was made to talk to one Dr. Balsing Rajput, IPS, DCP, Cyber Crime, who showed her a document issued by CBI and a letter with the seal of RBI that mentions her involvement in money laundering. He suggested her that if she wants to prove her innocence, she has to send an amount of Around Rs 1.5 lakh to the given account number of FDRBI of RBI for verification. Further, she was assured that if nothing illegal/suspicious is found with her Bank transactions, the amount will be immediately returned to her within 15 minutes. Out of panic and shock, she sent the amount from her Bank accounts through UPI and IMPS. During the conversation for next 10 to 15 minutes, she was given the clean chit but the caller went off line, and her money was never returned as assured.
– During investigation, it was found that it is a huge scam using the name of courier companies and faking as NCB, CBI, ED, Police Officers etc. Hundreds of people across the Country are being extorted huge amount of money.
As the scammers use the name of real NCB/CBI/ED/IPS Officer people tend to believe them as genuine. However, they don‘t show their face in the video chat. They use fake identity cards/certificate/logo etc. which further emboldens the belief that they are genuine.
– It was found that the amount deposited by victim landed in mule accounts of one Jagdamba Enterprises in Punjab. It was also found that scammers, in just 2-3 days, had extorted Rs 5.58 Crores (from many victims across the country using this single account). However this money was further transferred to different mule accounts and ultimately a major chunk of this amount was withdrawn through ATM in Dubai, UAE.
– It was found that the money so transferred from the 03 accounts of informant Ratna Tripathy and her son-in-law had landed in the account of Jagadamba Enterprises of which the present arrested accused Rajat Kumar is the authorized signatory.
– However this accused is just one part of much larger conspiracy/ scam of defrauding the innocent public by blackmailing them in the name of sending/receiving incriminating material/ narcotics drugs etc. through courier agencies and by impersonating the authorities of Police, Crime Branch, NCB, CBI and RBI etc.
-With this arrest EOW has got vital clues about real masterminds of this scam and the fraudsters sitting in Dubai. Efforts are on to arrest them. Further, so far 17 incriminating bank accounts have been frozen in this case.Investigation of the case is continuing.
