Jagatsinghpur: With the arrest of a Jharkhand youth, local police Saturday busted an online ATM looters’ gang which managed to transfer crores of rupees from people’s bank accounts impersonating as bank officials.
Police arrested accused Dheeraj Kumar Gupta from Margomunda village of Deogarh district in Jharkhand and seized 14 mobile phones from his possession.
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The villagers pelted stones on the police team which went to arrest Dheeraj and they tried to snatch the mobiles phones from the officials as most of the residents are learnt to be involved in the online fraud, Jagatsinghpur superintendent of police Jay Narayan Pankaj told media persons here.
Dheeraj, who alone had managed to loot over Rs 8 crore from people in the last one year, was brought here in remand from Jharkhand and produced in a court at Kujang, it was learnt.
Elaborating details, the SP said, Margomunda is a small village in Deogarh district and notorious as a hub of online ATM looters. Most of the families in this village are engaged in online ATM loots and are professional looters.
They personify themselves as bank managers and call people using fake SIM cards. Later, they manage to extract the sixteen or eighteen digits of the ATM cards and transfer the amount through e-wallet to their accounts. Sometimes, they use the cards for online shopping. They shop online using the digits and send it to their friends at a discount.
The matter came to light after Rs 37,400 was debited from the bank account of Kajal Pradhan, a resident of Teramanpur under Tirtol police limits in this district and the victim lodged a complaint with police.
Based on the complaint, the district police officials with the help of their counterparts of Deogarh in Jharkhand arrived at Margomunda. However, the villagers assaulted the police team and vandalised the police van. Left with no option, the team left Margomunda without arresting the other accused. Six other persons are involved in the case, police said.
Interestingly, the village is affluent with huge buildings dotting its landscape. Most people have latest electronic gadgets. Locals lived a king’s life with easy money while most of the youths hire buildings at other places to run their ‘business’, it was learnt.
The accused would be taken on remand for further investigation, Tirtol IIC Balaram Nayak said. PNN
