CID nabs multi-state online scam mastermind from Gujarat
Times of India | 22 April 2024
Kolkata: The state CID has busted a multi-state online racket that targeted senior citizens through multiple modus operandi like KYC fraud, investment and loan fraud and IT return frauds.
The CID found that the gang had set up call centres in four states and ran operations under a corporate structure where “promotions were linked to performances.” The mastermind has finally been nabbed from Bhavnagar in Gujarat in an operation carried out on Friday.The accused has been brought to Kolkata on transit remand.
“We had received a complaint from a retired person, a senior citizen, who was duped in the name of bank KYC up-gradation. He lost around Rs 5 lakh. We began the probe after the FIR was registered at a local police station. We found that the main operation is being carried out from Gujarat. A CID team held multiple raids and the mastermind, Shah Darshil Pareshbhai of Bhavnagar, Gujarat was arrested. He has accepted that the gang was proactive in at least three to four different states where they recruited locals as employees in the front office. Once produced in local court, Pareshbhai will be taken on remand for further probe,” said DIG (Special) Indra Chakravorty.
Cops said a hawala route was used to divide the profits. “The accused used traders across the country to route the money. Gujarat had recently nabbed a gang that routed money from China and we believe there are direct links with the man whom we have arrested. The accused, Pareshbhai, with help from these traders and some dealers in foreign shores, paid only 70% for goods bought from the foreign nations and kept 30% himself, thus redeeming the money earned from ‘I-tunes’ gift cards bought by US victims and processed in China,” added a cyber cell official.