KADAPA: In a significant breakthrough, police have busted an international gang involved in cybercrime in the guise of providing money to the kin of those died due to Covid-19 under the YSR Bima scheme. A special team formed by district Superintendent of Police KKN Anburajan, nabbed the four accused in New Delhi and found that the gang was headed by Ashok Lohar (33), a Nepali. The three other accused include Meenuga Narendra (22) and Jangampalli Janardhan (22) of Miduthur village in Khajipet mandal of Kadapa district, and Avulamanda Narayana (22) of Komarolu in Prakasam district.
Disclosing the arrest of the quartet to newsmen here on Sunday, Additional SP (Admin) Tushar Dudi said the case was cracked within 14 days after receiving a complaint and recovered Rs 3.29 lakh, 73 ATM cards, 18 mobiles and 290 SIM cards from the accused.
The Additional SP said the gang used to gather information about people who died of Covid-19, and make calls to the family members of the deceased offering financial aid from the government under the YSR Bima scheme. “Ashok Lohar hired Telugu-speaking tele-callers from Andhra Pradesh to run the racket. Claiming themselves to be government staff calling from the Collectorate, the accused used to seek details of bank accounts and OTP received on mobile phones to swindle money from the accounts of the unsuspecting family members of Covid-19 victims,” he explained.
Beeram Ramana Reddy, Nirmala and MV Sunitha of Kadapa, S Nagaveni of Khajipet, Vighneshwari, Vijaya Kumari of Pendlimarri, Krishna Chaitanya of Bramhamgari Mattam, Krishna Chaitanya of Proddatur, Jinka Haritha and P Adlakshmi of Badvel were duped by the gang. By sending URL links to targeted people’s mobiles in the guise of filling application forms, they swindled close to Rs 9 lakh. Based on complaints lodged by the victims in various police stations, the SP directed Kadapa One Town Inspector NV Nagaraju to investigate the matter with the help of cybercrime wing. The investigation revealed that Rs 8,28,086 was swindled. The bank accounts used to swindle the money were frozen.
The accounts were opened with the help of local people in Delhi on a commission basis. The details of accounts belonging to Kotak Mahindra Bank were sent to the Enforcement Directorate, Income Tax and Ministry of External Affairs for further probe into the case.
When questioned, Ashok Lohar admitted that he along with the arrested was running a call centre in Delhi. During probe, it came to light that similar cybercrimes were committed in Kurnool, Nandyal and Prakasam districts. The accused had confessed to cheating the public by sending fake scratch gift cards in the name of popular e-commerce and telemarketing companies by offering premium smart phones at heavy discount earlier.