4 RAILWAY COPS EXTORT MONEY ON EXPRESS TRAIN, BOOKED

MUMBAI: Three constables from the Government Railway Police (GRP) attached to the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) and one from the Railway Police Force (RPF), have been booked for extorting money from passengers of the Pushpak Express on Sunday.

According to a senior officer of the CSMT GRP, one constable identified as Vinod Namdeo Chavan, 34, was apprehended by commuters while the other three managed to escape. Hemant Bawdhankar, senior police inspector of CSMT GRP said that Chavan and the others had completed their duty and were travelling home to Kalyan by the Pushpak Express (CSMT to Lucknow) when the incident took place. The complainant, Mijim Ahmed Khan, 22, was travelling in the train and was chewing tobacco at the door when the constables approached him and threatened him with a ₹25,000 fine. When Khan refused to pay, the constables cornered Khan. The four held him by the collar and threatened to arrest him if he did not pay the fine. Khan pleaded with Chavan who was the only one in uniform and said that he only had ₹3,200.

The constables took the money from Khan following which the complainant called up his cousin who was sitting in another bogie and informed him of the incident. Khan’s cousin, Mohammed Shaikh, found the constables threatening other passengers. He argued with the four and when the situation escalated, two of the constables ran away but one was apprehended by the passengers. Chavan was caught after he came out of the train bathroom during which time the third constable escaped.

Commuters phoned the GRP helpline and when the train reached Kalyan station, they handed him over to the railway police. “The Kalyan GRP brought Chavan to CSMT GRP where we took him into custody,” said Bawdhankar, adding that they have booked all four constables under section 384 of the Indian Penal Code for extortion. MUMBAI : Calling a number that came up as “Reserve Bank of India (RBI) helpline” after a web search cost a 74-year-old Malad resident ₹48,000.

Last month, while cleaning his home, Vijaykumar Marwa found ₹7,000 in demonetised currency. Wanting to know how to get it exchanged, Marwa searched for the RBI helpline number on his mobile phone and called one of the fake numbers that showed up. Promising to deposit the notes in the RBI office, the fraudster asked Marwa for his bank details “to deposit the money to the account”. The man obtained the credit card details, along with the one-time password (OTP), and within minutes transferred ₹48,000 from Marwa’s bank account.

Realising that he had been duped, Marwa approached the Malad police station. An FIR was filed on January 6. This, according to experts, is vishing, where fraudsters, posing as financial institutions, put up their numbers online.

Balsing Rajput, superintendent, cyber, Maharashtra, said, “Cyber fraudsters have adopted this new technique lately. The search engine should verify if the

numbers are genuine or not. They need to correct it. We have written to them once and we will remind them again. People, too, should be cautious and only call

on numbers displayed on the official websites. We plan to set up a new anti-phishing cell to tackle all types of phishing, vishing and spam cases across the state.”