Indore cops to seek UP, Bihar police help to track fraudsters

INDORE: Indore police would be seeking help of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar police to crack a case wherein a Ratlam-based former Red Cross welfare officer was duped. The cops are tracking five people who duped the 72-year-old women of Rs 1.45 lakh in 2012-13.
Aruna Das got phone calls from different phone numbers in December 2012. The callers told her that she had won a Rs 25 lakh lottery and asked her to pay Rs 1.45 lakh for necessary documentary formalities to claim the lottery amount.They convinced her to make the payments in five different accounts of State Bank of India and ICICI bank between January 2013 and March 2013.
After Septuagenarian deposited the demanded sum, the callers stopped calling her. Later, attempts by the aged woman to re-establish communication with the callers over phone turned futile as the cell-phone numbers from which the calls were made were switched off.
The elderly woman reported the matter to superintendent of police at Indore police HQ, Dr Ashish in May 2013, after which the city police crime branch began the probe.
The probe led the city police crime branch to the five bank accounts, which were opened in five different places in East UP and Bihar, including Varanasi and Deoria (UP) and Patna, Gopalganj and Siwan (Bihar).
The five accounts are held by Ambrish Chandra Mishra (Deoria), Reoti Kumar (North Krishnapuri Colony in Patna), Gitendra Pandey (Baletha Bazar in Siwan), Raju Yadav (Thawe in Gopalganj) and Mohd Parvez (Sigra in Varanasi).
According to investigating officer and in charge of crime branch's 'We Care for You' cell Jyoti Sharma, a case of cheating, fraud and criminal conspiracy has been registered at Sanyogitaganj police station of Indore against the five persons under Sections 420, 120B, 506 and 34 of IPC, besides being booked under Section 66 of Information and Technology Act 2000.
Three more persons -- Akash Verma, Vijay Kumar and Raj Verma -- who called Das over phone in 2012-13 have been booked for cheating, fraud and criminal conspiracy in the same case.
"We'll soon seek help from UP and Bihar police to track the five persons in whose bank accounts the payments were made," Sharma told TOI on Monday.