Tab funds scam: 107 complaints in city, special investigating team set to probe in
Telegraph | 15 November 2024
The number of students falling victim to the “tab funds scam” crossed 100 on Thursday, police said.
A special investigation team has been formed to probe cheat complaints where students, eligible to receive the government grant to buy smartphones or tablets under the Taruner Swapna scheme, have not received the money. The funds have been fraudulently transferred to someone else’s bank accounts.
A team led by the deputy commissioner of the detective department special, Vidit Raj Bhundesh, visited the school education department headquarters at Bikash Bhavan to find out how the students’ banking data was shared with the finance department.
The number of complaints in Kolkata Police’s jurisdiction rose to 107 on Thursday.
“Preliminary inquiry revealed that the fraudsters had hired multiple mule accounts. Account holders were given anything between ₹300 and ₹5,000 to grant access to their bank accounts. Mule accounts are bank accounts that facilitate illegal transactions by receiving and transferring funds from unlawful activities, with or without the complicity,” said an officer of the Kolkata Police.
A large number of the mule accounts used in the crime are located in pockets of north Bengal, the police said.
Till now, two persons have been arrested in connection with the case. Both are from Chopra in North Dinajpur.
“Most of the bank accounts where the money has landed are in Chopra, Islampur, Kishanganj and other places in north Bengal. The money has been withdrawn through ATMs within one to two hours of the transfer,” said an investigator.
Police said they have obtained CCTV footage from some of the ATM kiosks from where the money has been withdrawn.
The state government planned to transfer ₹10,000 each to the bank accounts of 13 lakh students studying in Class XI and XII to enable them to buy tabs under the Taruner Swapna scheme. The scheme was launched in 2022.
Recently, Taruner Swapna funds misappropriation surfaced in many districts, with bona fide beneficiaries not getting the funds.
The police suspect that one person is behind the alleged scam. Several others who are suspected accomplices were missing, the police said.
A senior police officer attached to the probe said they were trying to identify the layers at which the students’ data had been compromised.
“The schools have collected the data of the students and sent it to the office of the district inspector of schools. The data was sent to the school education department from there. Which in turn was sent to the state treasury. We are trying to find out at which layer the data was compromised,” said the officer.
Till Thursday, out of the 107 complaints received, 10 cases were started by the city police.