On pretext of linking Aadhaar, two cheat people of ₹10 cr, held

NEWDELHI: With the arrest of two men, the Delhi Police on Friday claimed to have busted an online banking racket that operated from Maoist-affected areas of Jharkhand and West Bengal and duped over 1,000 people through SIM card swapping. Police said the conmen tricked account holders into sharing confidential details in the name of linking Aadhaar cards with mobile phones, to steal money. They have stolen more than ₹10 crore from different bank accounts till date, the police said. At least 81 debit cards, 104 cheque books, 130 pass books of different bank accounts, eight mobile phones, 31 SIM cards, some ID proofs and documents were recovered.

The arrested men were identified as 27-year-old Alimuddin Ansari from Jamtara in Jharkhand and his aide Manoj Yadav (31) from Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh. Police said Ansari and his associates allegedly used to cheat the targets and then transfer the stolen money into bank accounts of some associates, which were provided by Yadav.

Deputy commissioner of police (Dwarka) Anto Alphonse said Rakesh Gilani, a resident of Dwarka, had filed a complaint reporting that he received a call from a man posing as a customer care representative of the telecom service he uses and informed him that his Aadhaar number needs to be linked with his mobile number. “On this pretext, the caller asked Gilani details of his debit card and bank accounts. After some time, Gilano got a text saying ₹4.17 lakh had been debited from his account,” Alphonse said.

The DCP said after scanning the call details of as many as 100 suspects and examination of account details and checking passengers’ list of some relevant flights, they raided a house in Madanpur Khadar and Karol Bagh and arrested Manoj Yadav.

“Based on Yadav’s disclosure, the police team raided a premise in Rajasthan’s Ajmer and arrested Ansari who turned out to be the mastermind of this racket,” Alphonse said.

During interrogation, the duo allegedly revealed there are more than 100 members in their syndicate. “Each member has a different task and Yadav’s job was to furnish bank accounts to hide the stolen money,” the officer said.