A woman constable of Uttar Pradesh Police was among five people arrested over a Rs 52 lakh fraud with a Greater Noida resident on the pretext of renewing his lapsed insurance policy, police said on Tuesday.
Forged stamps of the Union Finance Ministry and the Reserve Bank of India were also recovered from the gang, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Greater Noida) Abhishek Verma said.
Those held have been identified as the Deepak Kumar, his wife Priyanka, Jitendra, Vishal Tyagi and Harendra Krishna, he said.
Deepak is the mastermind of the gang, police said.
Priyanka is currently posted as a constable in Shamli district of western Uttar Pradesh and the role of some other policemen in Saharanpur district is also under investigation the IPS officer said.
According to the police, Ashok Kumar Sharma (75), a retired government officer, had purchased an insurance policy six years ago but due to certain financial conditions could not continue it, following which it lapsed.
“Around two years ago, he started getting phone calls by people who identified themselves as representatives of insurance companies and the RBI and told him that his insurance policy could be revived. They also told him that the fund in his insurance has increased to Rs 1.20 crore which he will be able to get,” a police official said.
“One of the representatives kept regular touch with Sharma and sent him forged documents over WhatsApp which had letters bearing seals of the Finance Ministry, the RBI, etc. However, Sharma was asked on multiple occasions to transfer funds on pretext of processing charges, etc. For over two years, the retired officer ended up transferring Rs 52 lakh in total to them in the hope of getting his insurance money,” the official said.
An FIR was lodged at the Dadri police station in Greater Noida on July 29 this year after which an investigation was taken up with the help of the cyber experts, leading to the arrest of the gang on Tuesday.
Verma said the amount of fraud committed by the gang runs into crores till date.
“Deepak has been active in duping people since 2019. Prior to this case, he had been conning people of smaller amounts, but this time he had obtained complete insurance details of Sharma and went for a big fraud,” he told reporters.
On the role of others, he said, Rs 12.50 lakh was transferred into Priyanka’s bank account and she knew well that the money was obtained through fraud, police said.
“The gang would obtain details of insurance policies of customers through its network. They knew when a person’s policy was on about to lapse or expire. They would then pose as tele-callers from the insurance company and ask customers to pay an amount in some bank accounts to renew it,” he said.
“Forged stamps of the Finance Ministry, the RBI and the banking ombudsman were used by them to convince customers into believing that they were genuine representatives due to which people paid them money,” Verma said.
The gang used the fraudulently-made money for buying properties, and other expenses, he added.
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