Station house officer of Cyber police station, Lalit Kumar and his team have arrested seven people in three different cyber fraud cases.
Ram Kanwar Dalal, resident of Sector 25 Panchkula, said that he is retired from the post of Superintendent and on April 1, he received a Whatsapp call saying, “I am your nephew Rocky. I am calling from Australia.” The person who told Ram that he will send Rs 9.10 lakh to his account and he should give this money to his friend because his mother is very ill.
The person got the bank account details and sent a receipt of Rs 9 lakh to Ram on WhatsApp for depositing the money. He called and said that the money will be transferred to his account within 24 hours. After that, another person called him and said that he was Rocky’s friend and asked him to send the money, which he first transferred to different accounts for Rs 4 lakh. The next day, he called up and said that his mother had passed away and he had to deposit a bill of Rs 5.10 lakhs. Later, Rocky called him and said that he is sending Rs 11 lakh to his account.
After that, the victim fell prey to the trap of cyber fraud and sent Rs 5.10 lakh to him. When the victim told Rocky’s father about the transfer to Jind, he got annoyed. He informed him on phone that Rocky has been in India since March 16 and learnt that cyber criminals have cheated him. A complaint was lodged at the Cyber Police Station. Based on the complaint, a case was registered under Section 406, 420, 120-B IPC.
The accused named Bobby, a resident of Kasli village in Rajasthan was produced in the court and was remanded.
In the second case, the victim lodged a complaint that two persons were sending threats and obscene pictures to her on Whatsapp. They were threatening her and making demands for money and other things. Cyber police station registered a case under IT Act and started with the investigation. Kumar arrested the accused Ankur Thakural and Timsi, residents of Jalandhar. Both of the accused were produced before the court and sent to judicial custody in Ambala.
The third incident took place on July 15. Debasis Chaudhary was defrauded as the cyber criminals cheated him of Rs 10 lakh. A case was registered in Cyber police station, Sector 12 under FIR No. 57 dated 17.07.2024 under Section 318 (4), 338, 336 (3), 340, 61 of BNS 2023.
The victim was deceived into believing that his credit card was involved in a money laundering scheme. The fraudsters, claiming to be government officials, threatened him with arrest and coerced him into transferring Rs 10 lakh via Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS.) They instructed the victim not to disclose the matter to anyone under threat of further legal action. The police have arrested four individuals- Vishnu, Sonu, Hemant Kumar and Sanjay Kumar. Vishnu and Sanjay Kumar are currently on a five-day police remand, while Sonu and Hemant Kumar have been sent to judicial custody in Ambala.
Kumar said that cyber criminals adopt different methods, and by scaring or luring people with some kind of greed, they carry out the fraud by adopting digital methods in which the victims get cheated of a huge amount of money. He appealed to the people not to fall prey to any greed or fear cyber criminals and immediately call the cyber helpline number 1930. He said, “Tell your parents for sure about cyber fraud and that cyber fraudsters can deceive anyone. Do not fall prey to any kind of greed or temptation.”