Cuttack: Three cybercriminals have been taken into custody from Bihar’s Patna for duping a man from Dhenkanal of lakhs of rupees on the pretext of facilitating dealership of a fuel station, the Crime Investigation Department (CID) of the state Crime Branch claimed Monday.
Akash Kumar, 21, of Gangapur in Nalanda district, Subham Priyadarshi ,19, of Sijua in Gaya district and Koushelendra Kumar ,23, of Chakwai Warisalinganj in Nawada district in Bihar have been arrested from Airport police limits in Patna November 29. The trio was produced in a Patna court before being brought to state on a transit remand. They would be produced before a local court in Dhenkanal’s Bhuban, said a press release issued by the CID, Monday.
According to CID sources, the accused have duped Om Prakash Mishra ,37, of Bhuban in Dhenkanal of Rs 40.45 lakh on the pretext of providing him dealership of a Reliance fuel station. “The fraudsters created a bogus website— reliancepetroleum.org— and managed to lure Mishra into depositing money in multiple bank accounts in order to get him the fuel station dealership. However, they didn’t turn up,” the source pointed out.
Upon realising the fraud, Mishra approached the Cyber police which registered a case (1- January 3, 2019) under Sections 419, 420, 34 of the IPC apart from 66-D of Information Technology Act-2000 and began probe.
During investigation, police claimed to have traced the location of the accused to Bihar. Later, a team, comprising Cyber Police inspector in-charge (IIC) Bibhu Ranjan Sundarray, sub-inspector (SI) Biswa Prakash Rout and a few others, raided the possible hideouts of the accused and made the arrests.
Police claimed to have seized 16 cell phones, SIM cards, laptop, pen drive, dongle and Rs 8,59,000 in cash. Besides, 47 debit cards and a notebook with hand written communication on ways to deal with public while alluring them for petrol pump dealership were also seized from their possession.