BHUBANESWAR: The Special Task Force (STF) of the Crime Branch arrested another man for his alleged involvement in the one-time password (OTP) scam and links with high-ranking Pakistani intelligence operatives.
The accused Abhijeet Sanjay Jambure (32) was arrested from Pune on Thursday and produced before a local court there before being brought to Bhubaneswar on transit remand. A court in the state capital had earlier issued a non-bailable warrant against him.
Jambure was constantly in contact with Pakistani intelligence and Army officers for the last several years. In 2018, he came in contact with Pakistani national Syed Danish Ali Naqvi through Facebook. Naqvi, a native of Faisalabad, introduced himself as a freelancer working with an American education technology company - Chegg. Jambure provided his user ID and password of Chegg to Danish.
Danish engaged some people to work on Jambure’s behalf for the education technology company. The payment towards the work was credited to Jambure’s bank account in India. “In return, Jambure made payments for agents working for Pakistan when they bought OTPs and mule bank accounts from cyber fraudsters hailing from Odisha and other parts of the country,” said an STF officer.
Danish later introduced Jambure to one of his friends - Abdul Hamid alias Khurram of Karachi. Khurram is reportedly a senior Pakistani army intelligence officer having a vast network of agents in India. As per Khurram’s instructions, Jambure transferred money to Pakistani intelligence operatives working in India.
STF’s investigation reveals Jambure had spoken with at least seven Pakistani and 10 Nigerian citizens on WhatsApp. A native of Maharashtra’s Satara district, Jambure completed his post-graduation in Statistics from Sardar Patel University at Anand in Gujarat.
He was working in a multinational firm in Pune engaged in providing technology and IT consulting services. So far, the agency has arrested six persons in connection with the scam and further investigation is continuing.