Kolkata: The metropolitan magistrate of Bankshall Court on Thursday recorded the statement of an 82-year-old US citizen — who had lost a few thousand dollars to a Kolkata-based cyber fraud gang last year — through audio-visual mode with the victim sitting at Catonsville in Baltimore County. Cops said they would go through the fresh statement to ascertain if they needed to add additional charges in the case.
Sources said the Baltimore branch of the FBI contacted Lalbazar through Interpol in Sept last year and reported the fraud. The gang allegedly duped elderly American citizens on the pretext of offering technical support. Following this lead, Lalbazar’s cybercrime police arrested two individuals, Denis Ahmed and Mohammad Iftikhar Ali. Since 2023, this was the third time that a US citizen was testified in this manner. Earlier, two American women had given confidential statements in separate fraud cases in a similar manner.