Bhadohi (Uttar Pradesh), May 21 (IANS): The Bhadohi police have busted a gang operating 38 branches of a bogus 'bank' across eight districts of the state.
Three persons, including the mastermind, have been arrested.
The gang members used to lure customers to open accounts with their 'bank' by offering lucrative returns, and have duped hundreds of gullible persons of over Rs 17 crore.
Superintendent of Police (SP) Bhadohi Anil Kumar said, "A joint team of Gyanpur police station, crime branch and cyber cell have nabbed Murari Kumar Nishad of Jaunpur, Ashok Kumar and Ramesh Jaiswal of Sonbhadra. So far, we have found details of 38 branches operating in eight districts of the state in the name of 'BSMJ Quasi Bank'. Also, details of fraud of Rs 17 crore via several thousand 'bank' accounts have come to light. Murari has come out as the kingpin of the gang during the investigation."
According to the official, while Murari and Ashok introduced themselves as managing directors of the 'bank', Ramesh played the role of the branch manager.
Police have seized three four-wheelers, three laptops, Rs 36,000, desktop computers, 53 stamps, 70 registers, 618 passbooks and many other documents worth Rs 67.25 lakh from the fraudsters.
Kumar said the 'bank' came on Bhadohi police radar when people in areas where the 'bank' officials had stopped clearing payment of maturity amount of different schemes and other transactions started complaining to the police.
"When the complaints started piling up, I formed a special investigation team, which checked the credentials of the bank in consultation with the officials in the ministry of corporate affairs of the Government of India, registrar chits and funds and other departments concerned," the SP said.
After it became clear that this bank was being operated fraudulently, the details of persons involved in launching and operating it were collected.
The exercise took three months and ended with the arrest of Murari, Ashok and Ramesh.
Apart from eight east UP districts, where they had 38 branches, they also targeted innocent persons in remote areas of Jharkhand and other neighbouring states," the official added.
The gang not only engaged agents to convince people to make investments but also operated their branches in a proper setup like regular banks. They used to pay the maturity amount of their schemes after making lucrative offers but after once sure that no new accounts were being opened at a particular location, they used to close the branch and flee.
The kingpin Murari had married two women, used to live in luxurious houses and maintained costly cars, said police, adding, a process to freeze all bank accounts of the members of the gang is also being initiated under the ongoing investigation.