Pics: Spoorthi Ullal

Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)

Mangaluru, Jul 5: A total of 144 cybercrime cases have been registered in the city commissionerate so far. The police, who have been investigating the cases, have succeeded in cracking a case and arresting an accused.

This was stated by city police commissioner, Sandeep Patil, addressing a press meet here on Friday July 5.

The police commissioner said that a complaint had been registered about a person making calls to people and offering to provide loans at low rates of interest. After getting deceived by the gang, the victim had filed a complaint. The police who followed the leads, succeeded in arresting an accused, identified as Yusuf Khan (30). He was arrested from Charakpuri, New Delhi. Two others, Naushad and Prabhakar, are absconding.

Patil explained that all the accused are from Uttar Pradesh. They were operating from an office in New Delhi. He said that two other accused, identified as Naushad and Prabhakar, are absconding.

The accused had called the complainant, offering to provide loan at low rate of interest. During the telephonic conversation, he also sought to know the bank account number, Aadhar car number, PAN details etc of the complaint. The caller then asked the accused to deposit amount in the bank as part of the equated monthly instalment. Initially, the complainant deposited Rs 1,70,000. However, after this, the caller was out of reach.

The commissioner said that during the raid, the police recovered Rs 70,000 in cash, two laptops, and 31 cellphones besides books in which call details have been recorded. He stated that the accused were indulging in this illegal act since the last six months. They used to make about 400 calls every day out of which about 60 to 70 on an average volunteered to fall victims to this game plan.

The police commissioner also stated that similar complaints have also been made and registered in different parts of Karnataka.

“The accused was claiming himself to be working for Bharathi Finance Limited and was running a website www.bharatifinance.co.in. He was contacting people and providing loans at 5% interest.

“He used to call customers an ask them to provide Adhaar and PAN card details, photo, income certificate, salary certificate, bank details and send through WhatsApp. Later, he used to make verification call to customers and send loan sanction certification via email to gain their trust. Further, he used to ask them to deposit money on security charge, service charge, insurance charge, and DD charge.

"Two cases are registered against the accused for fraud by creating fake website of reputed airlines. Investigation is on,” said police commissioner.

The operation was carried under the direction of police commissioner Sandeep Patil, DCP law and order Hanumantharaya, DCP crime and traffic Laxmi Ganesh, cybercrime police inspector Chandrashekarayya, CCRB inspector Shyam Sundar, Omdas, head constable Dinesh Bekal, Kumar, Maya Prabhu, PC Vijay Shetty, and home guard Videep.